Sugar Plums POV
by SoundlessSleep
Summary: Perspective pieces of characters from the story Sugar Plums.
1. Hiroshi

As I walk away the little girl watches me depart. Every so often I glance back and she's still there, her hair is a contrast of the grey stone that surrounds the academy. She may even still be there as I turn the corner to go out of sight, she doesn't trust that I may not turn around and exact some retribution for what she did on her.

I cannot much see the point now.

I'm, tired, stiff and uncomfortable in many many places. I head through the gate and the guards nod me through. I wonder if they noticed I was gone, or maybe they had been ordered not to ask questions. That may very well be the case but I don't linger on the thought. I just want to take a bath, to get some real food, I just want to, to think.

Memories go through my mind as I wash myself clean and lay in the water. I close my eyes and my thoughts drift back to the little girl, and to myself.

I know who and what I am. I am a family heir, and in many ways I am the best in my class. I have the most talented ninjutsu user in my year, I have managed to use higher tier jutsu for three elements and have been working earnestly on the fourth. I scored highest in my class for placement into the strategy and infiltration class. In a lot of ways, I am ahead of most of the people in my year. I have had classes and tutors in etiquette, law, history, geography, rhetorics and everything a proper heir is supposed to know. I should be the very top of my class, but in many ways I am not.

And it burns.

The Hozuki despite not having the knowledge is in three more standard courses, excelling in physical training and ninjutsu, regardless of the fact that he is only proficient in one element. It is frustrating the edge he has, but not unexpected considering his lineage. Even if he is not the heir he would be thoroughly trained. But the boy with the glasses, the one who is in two physical training courses even though I could not get into a single one pass the standard he shouldn't be. None of that should be, I should be at least in a secondary course like kenjutsu, or at least genjutsu. But I have yet to sway them into thinking otherwise and my family will not argue for me. They say it isn't necessary, that a proper Kishi need not take a higher physical course, but they don't understand. I was put in one, like so many others, I should at least be in two to be a better shinobi, the best. I could do it if they let me, but then again, I'm not even the best in my strategy class. Several others are above me, but it is not as embarrassing as the one in my own class.

Three years my junior, from civilian stock, that little girl who could barely keep up with laps is in a physical course. Worse yet though, she's smarter than me.

It still makes me clench my teeth thinking about it. I study every night, I go to class, I am always looking up strategies and books and she, does nothing. I'm not even sure she's paying attention half the time, it's not fair it's not…

 _"What laws are those?"_

 _Her voice grows sharper as she stares at me with those grey eyes. I don't know anybody else with those eyes and even though I don't want to admit it she has the upper hand._

 _"The laws that if a founding member steals from us, we say nothing. That if a founding member hurts us, hurts our friends, our family than that is their right. That if we apply for a job and someone from the families applies for it they will get it, not because they've earned it but because they were lucky enough to be born to them. Those rules, do those rules seem very fair?"_

Seeing the confusion in my eyes. It wasn't fair, fair but what was fair?

She beat me, she captured me, she humiliated me but then she just stopped. She let me go, why?

I hit the water, this wouldn't do, this wasn't right. This, wasn't a setback, maybe she was lying maybe she is accumulating blackmail she clearly doesn't trust me. She must have something up her sleeve, must have some plan. What she said must have been deliberate, she must be trying to sway me, but to what cause.

There isn't enough information.

I pull myself out of the tub and move to dry myself off. I was tired, but I'm never too tired to do research. I need more information before I can come to a conclusion, that's what I was always taught.

I needed to do research.

* * *

I do not return to school immediately, the school doesn't have what I need and I still have some time before I am expected to return. I am not even sure my parents have noticed my return, but that's fine they're probably busy.

The selection of books there is unimpressive and most of it is rather redundant. First I need confirmation, that was what you did when you are given intel from an unconfirmed source, it was the ninja way.

The first place I look history but quickly discard it. It is a rather limited section, which I've always found incredibly odd. So then I look up the law books, which are much more numerous.

The basic study of law is required teachings of my family, but the sections I see are more specific. At first, I find nothing, or nothing to substantiate the girls claims. But going through numerous cases, there is a pattern, that pattern goes to one of the ancient laws, the law of testimony.

The law of testimony is at it's base something like a code of honor, the stating that when asked about an incident that may have caused trouble for the village or the assets that those who testify will be believed about their merit and contribution to the community. Of course, such honor hadn't been honored since the extinction of the noble swordsman of the village, the samurai of the land of water. I saw extinction in that they were literally and liberally killed by ninja tactics from outside factions when it became clear that their way of life wouldn't benefit the country long term. Only the Akebino really followed anything resembling the way they were and even then it was heavily twisted to more practical uses.

But basically the law of testimony meant that your standing of a member of the community was the only evidence needed in a dispute large or small. This was foggier and investigations were made when similarly ranked members made contradicting testimony, but counter checking with smaller reports and case files as well as death warrants it seemed that this law still held strong. Which if you looked at it from the most pragmatic standpoint it meant one thing.

The little girl was right, the seven families could do whatever they will with the lower class and they're testimony would not overrule theirs.

I had to double check several times, I asked several of my family members to clarify before I got to that conclusion and when I asked more questions they seemed to shrug it off as trivial, shrug me off. I'm not sure what made me more angry, that they wouldn't answer my questions or that the subject matter was itself trivial.

When they won't speak to me I try a new tactic, I try to talk to the clerks. Clerks are usually shinobi who work the desks and missions but several stay on the Kishi compound. They themselves are usually not Kishi so maybe they would understand this better, maybe they would answer some questions.

They don't.

Or more like, they won't. They always seem genial when they see me, very polite very respectful but the subject I bring up, the questions I ask, they all seem to, shut down at them. It isn't like the family members who just brush it off, they seem nervous. Why? What are they afraid of?

It takes all three days for me to hit my dead end on the information.

This won't do, I need to gather more information. Maybe not from them, I have all the information I can get as myself. Who else would talk to me though, the adults, they're afraid, all of them, I need someone who isn't afraid. I need someone like..

No, no, no, I'm not asking her about this. I already did that once and all she said was all but useless to me.

But I need more information, more first hand knowledge. Who else isn't afraid?

The answer hits me quickly, but the question is how do I make an approach. It doesn't take long to find another answer.

A simple request from the supply office gets me a set of the grey clothes worn by the other students. After I remove my cap and mess my hair up. Most the other students have a spiky mess on their head, the members of my family think it a sign of commonness to have such messy hair and it's strange the difference in look as I look at the deliberate bedhead I usually spend so much time smoothing out with special oils and a brush.

Of course I can't leave the house looking like that, so I leave under a henge and head to the school early to participate in the runs. I slip into the groups unnoticed, keep a normal pace though I can't help but be nervous.

It wasn't like a henge or a full disguise, I just changed my clothes and my hair. Surely someone would notice, or point it out. But no, the run ends and no one seems the wiser.

But that isn't a real challenge, the real challenge is breakfast for the academy kids. The eating hall is the same room where announcements are held I find out. Every student here lines up and they're handed out from boxes a ration each. I thought she was kidding when she said they ate it every day. I got to the line and looked at the bland bar for a moment before someone gave me a shove so I could get moving. I turn on my heel and look at them, to yell at them for daring, then I pause.

No, do not break, do not reveal yourself, you haven't found anything useful yet.

I instead nod my head and remove myself from the line but I am stumped by the next obstacle.

Where in the world do I sit?

The hall is a flurry of movement as students run and bump past me claiming tables and seats for themselves. They are mostly moving in groups, in formation actually, pushing through the crowds and claiming patches of empty table.

My hesitation fades, I need to find a place to sit or I will sit nowhere. That would be both embarrassing and make me stand out. I see a flicker of red in the crowd and find myself following it. In a sea of grey, black and brown it's like a beacon and I find myself near the edge of a table on the far edge of the room. Seated in a cluster is the rest of my class. They are all hunched around a basket of rice surrounded by bowls. On closer examination, all the tables have this.

The little girl and her paler friend are filling the bowls with the spoons and passing them down the line. The bowls aren't full and I'm not sure why until I see two boys at the end once they get their bows breaking up the bars and scattering it among the rice before dousing it in soy sauce and passing the bottle down the line. It's a neat and orderly scene and I sit absently near the very end just watching.

Is this what they did every day, every meal?

I am distracted enough by the sight that I don't notice a bowl being set in front of me. It wasn't until I was nudged by the boy next to me that I looked down.  
"Hurry up and move the line."  
It was one of the basic course boys. He looked right at me but didn't even comment on my presence.

I blinked at him before I felt a bottle touch my hand. There was a boy flanking me and he had passed me the soy sauce. I nod my head and quickly mimic their pattern before passing down the line.

Breakfast conversation for the group was loud dialogs that ranged from tactics, to soreness from tests, to most peculiarly music. Music came up a lot, and more than once would a song start among the group and they would go through the whole thing. The girl with the red hair would pull gottan off her back and play along with the music.

I looked at it curiously, I just thought it was just there to disguise the sheath of her sword, that she actually knew how to play was unusual. I knew no instruments myself, such things were considered the realm of the Aozora or maybe the Sumire who are known to carry flutes (mind you, said flutes are more well known for their ability to throw poisoned darts). I pretended to sing along during these sessions mostly moving my mouth at a low hum with the beat of the music. I doubt anybody could truly hear that I did not know the words of these unusual songs.

I eat the food in front of me, it's, tolerable with the soy but I needed a few glasses of water to wash it down. By the time I'm finished there is movement likely a signal that we need to move to our next class. Everyone moves their bowls and set them on a table on the far end of the room before we move onto the next class. I wonder who cleans all those dishes.

* * *

As we go to our first class the little girl doesn't speak much until we are directly down the hallway from our tactics class. I see out of the corner of my eye she is clearly surprised. That at least is amusing. That something so simple alluded her through the laps and our meal even though I was so close.

I expected questions, or shock, or accusation even but instead she only asked one.

"Why did you change clothes?"

That wasn't what I was expecting but I don't let it show as I crisply answer.

"I'm gathering information."

We are required to give mission reports in tactics about our assignment. I had to write mine several times before I had a version I was satisfied with. I had thought about lying on the mission report but the problem was that when the report was compared with my captors there would likely be more evidence and witnesses to support hers.

Though given what I found, it's entirely possible they would disregard it on my word.

I had almost done just that, had almost pushed for that but the words came up again in my head. The words she said.

" _Do you think you've been acting like a hero?"_

I crumpled up manage scrolls at those words. It burned that she beat me, burned so bright, I wanted too so badly just push a little bit, to beat her, to humiliate her, but, but, heroes didn't do that. They wouldn't cheat or at least cheat on something like a class assignment. My graduation wasn't riding on this assignment, even if I didn't pass because of this I doubted such a mark would impede my advancement. Plus I had to have some pride.

The teacher did a discussion about the infiltration assignment but didn't discuss the individual reports. I was glad for that at least.

I leave and head for my next class which I positively loath. It's the kenjutsu basic course. Or really several kids with wooden sticks practicing the basic form. Somehow no matter how many times we repeat it, whatever I'm doing is not good enough for placement into the standard course.

I line up with my class, we are all required to stay in the same basic area in the training hall. We grab our wooden shaft swords are given our form instructions and then are expected to execute them for the entire class session. It's mind numbingly simple but I haven't found any way out of it.

As I am going through the steps though, something unusual happens, a boy from my class speaks.

"Hey, your stance is a little off."  
I turn and face the boy, it's the loud one. He is usually around the little girl and her paler friend, at breakfast he was also the loudest singer whenever they started a song. Loudest, and most tone deaf, it was a blessing that he was mostly drowned out during the meal.

My eyes narrow and I move to snap at him that I know what I'm doing but I hold back and relax my face.  
"Oh?"  
I try to keep my voice steady trying to curb my annoyance, but I can hear that some bled through. Not that he seems to notice.

"Yeah, you gotta widen it and turn your foot like this."  
He mimics what he is saying as he pulls back his blade.  
"Then you push off like, yah!"  
He moved forward through the last part of the form in an exaggerated and enthusiastic gesture. But, he's not wrong, his footing is more steady and the swing stronger for it.

I calm my voice and mimic, there was no harm in trying. I set my foot and hold my grip and push forward my hands more calm as I swing forward.

"Yah."  
My voice is more contained.

"There you go!"  
The loud boy cheers before walking over.

"You're pretty good, I bet we'll be out of this course in any day now and we can have our own swords!"  
He hold the handle of his sword out with a wide smile. I'm just staring at him. That was just a simple form, how could he be so excited. How could he smile like that, at me?

"I haven't seen you around, are you from a different barracks?"

"I, yes, I.."  
The boy cuts me off.  
"Oh cool, they usually stay to themselves, did you want to spar?"

"Um sure ma.."  
I start again but he cuts me off.  
"Cool, I'll get in stance you can get in stance, remember the stance!"

I'm caught off guard and complying simply because I'm not sure I'd get a word in edgewise. The boy stands across from me in stance and pauses for a few moments as he's looking at me and puts a hand on his forehead.  
"Darn it, I forgot."

I blink for a moment and don't speak as I get out of my stance.  
"Forgot?"

"Yeah, names, we haven't exchanged names. I'm so bad at that, sorry. Kiriko keeps saying I need to slow down when I talk."  
Well Kiriko is right, if he had done what he did in courts or to superiors he'd be reprimanded heavily.

He walks over to me and holds out his free hand.  
"My name is Enji."

I look at the hand for a moment and grab it.  
"Enji-san,"  
I say it testing it.

"Nah, just Enji, san's so formal, I don't think I've ever been a san. What's your name?"  
He holds my hand but doesn't shake and I look into his eyes. Does he really not know?

"Um, Yuudai,"  
I mutter out a little embarrassed at my choice but I didn't have much time to think of an alias, or more like I didn't think I'd need one so soon.

He gives my hand a hearty shake.

"Yuudai, I like it, I bet Gonmaru would too. Hey Gonmaru!"

He waves his sword over to another boy who is nearby.

I turn to look at Gonmaru and recognize him as the largest boy in our year. I wouldn't say tallest, that is the Hozuki but certainly the widest. He would be intimidating if his face wasn't set in a grin as he approaches.  
"Yeah?"

"Meet my new friend Yuudai, we were about to spar."  
Enji bounces on his palms as he moves back into position for us to spar. I stare at him, for a moment as he does before I mimic. I'm still not exactly sure what happened. He called me a friend? He literately just met me, how can someone be so simple? Is he just stupid or what?

I look at the boy trying to search his features as we get into a ready position with our swords. There isn't any doubt or hesitation in his stance, he can't possibly mean it, can he?

* * *

Enji and by association Gonmaru stick to me for my other classes until I have to separate for the ninjutsu standard course. The two of them chatter endlessly while mostly I nod along. We went to lunch together which was much the same affair as breakfast. Though I noticed immediately that the bowls we left on the table at breakfast were taken from the same stack and hadn't been cleaned. I had to hide my disgust at the slovenliness of it. I carried my bowl next to Enji and Gonmaru but when I sat down I couldn't hand it over, so instead I did a water jutsu to at least wash it out. Apparently I wasn't the only one to do so as a few students were dumping water out of their bowls, Enji and Gonmaru didn't bother. When I asked them why they did they both shrug.

"We don't know that jutsu, not that I could use it anyway, I suck at water jutsu because it's my opposite nature."  
He held up the side of his bowl.  
"Anyway, it's my bowl, there's a chip on the bottom after all, so no problem."

I process that for a moment. He was fire nature? That was a hugely offensive jutsu set and considered incredibly useful.

"Why didn't they put you in the ninjutsu standard if you can use fire jutsu?"  
The question came out as I passed my bowl to get the rice.

Enji scratches the back of his head.  
"I suck at chakra control, but it's no problem when we graduate I'm sure they'll teach us a bunch of cool jutsu."

I blink at him for a moment then look at my bowl. Bad control but a rare nature, shouldn't they be training him more thoroughly. Even I couldn't use fire jutsu since it was opposite to my nature. If he learned wind jutsu with it he would be good at it. Or at least, he'd certainly try. If he put as much enthusiasm in swordsmanship or in eating in ninjutsu he could learn at least some basic ones to expand upon.

My train of thought on this is interrupted when someone speaks out.  
"Hey you guys see Hiroshi around? I didn't see him knocking around with his sword today."

Most the table shakes their heads.  
"Nah, probably sick or at some super important conference with his family."  
The girl with green eyes puffs of her chest and tries to deepen her voice to emphasize importance. The rest of the table laughs before they continue eating. My grip tightens on the table head but I keep repeating in my head don't blow, don't break cover.

Taijutsu class has Gonmaru depart to join the standard course. It's much like the kenjutsu using forms and such with occasional sparring. I usually isolated myself in this class since we were not required to stand by our class. Standing with them though we went through the stretches and practiced a few forms before a boy comes over.

"Guys, guys, come watch!"  
The boy look at us with expectancy.

"What is it Benjiro?"  
Enji perks up bouncing on his feet. Where in the world does he get the energy to always be moving like that.

"Manami and Ume are sparring again!"  
Enji makes and immediately jogs behind him. I walk behind curious as to what can such a spectacle be.

"Is this something interesting?"  
I ask as I keep up to the circle.

"Best show there is. No one will spar with Manami and Ume anymore, so they only really spar with each other in class."  
Enji said bouncing along.

"Why is that?"  
Truthfully I had seen these gatherings before but never thought it important to look. What could they possibly offer me when I needed to train?

"Easy, they both fight super dirty."  
Enji smiles.  
"It's great, but you gotta keep an eye on Minami, she's started to use flash tags."

"Flash tags, where in the world did she get flash tags those are incredibly expensive?"  
I kind of remember where those went.

"I think she stole them from one of the teachers or something, it's always hard to tell where she gets her tricks because Manami's fingers are stickier the wet rice. Anyway, she hides them in her sleeves, so if you see her reach in there close your eyes."  
We come up to the crowd, have to move up on my toes to look over the other kids but I see the little girl and the girl with the green eyes circling each other. There's someone in the middle holding a hand out. It's the curly haired girl she looks at the two of them before moving her arm off and jumping backwards.

The little girl, Ume, the one who beat me smiles as she closes the distance between her and her opponent with an elbow. Kami, was she always that fast?

The girl with green eyes, Manami twists with the attack. It hit but she rolls backwards grabbing the smaller girl with both hands and pushing her over her head trying to slam her in the ground. Ume responds promptly by, biting her. Manami pulls back one of her arms and Ume puts a hand on the ground flipping with Manami still clutching onto her and the two of them fall into a heap onto the floor. They start rolling kicking, Manami has a grip on Ume who is trying to use her free hand to pound her on back and let her go. Eventually she decides she can't get out that way and headbutts the other girl who finally releases her and jumps back.

Manami rolls back into a crouch position and Ume starts to get back into position for a stance but Manami smiles and does a sign.  
"Seal!"  
I close my eyes as I hear a yell from Ume. I'm mostly blocked by the crowd so I don't get the brunt but I can see when I open my eyes where the seal was. Manami had put it on Ume's chest while they were grappling. That was clever. The look around the girl's eyes shows she's been blinded temporarily as Manami closes in on the girl. However Ume only seems stunned for a few seconds before she ducks down as Ume throws a kick at her and barrels forward head down into the other girls chest like a boar.

They continue their brawl, because that is what this is I'm surprised the teacher is even letting this happen, until eventually Ume taps out apparently exhausted and tired of being blind. Manami is not without her bruises, including a prominent one on her forehead as well as a few more bite marks before she goes over and helps Ume up. The kids cheer as the pale girl grabs Ume and the curly hair girls grabs Manami and they are pulled to the side probably to seek medical attention.

"Is it always that, fierce?"  
That is all I can say about that. I knew there was racket during class, knew that some fights were big but I never knew they were this, pragmatic. They hardly conformed to any form or teaching even though we were drilled in it.

"Well not always, sometimes Ume knocks Manami on her butt before the fight gets into full swing. She's really good at that."  
I nod knowing first hand that is true and wince in response.

"Anyway, let's start working on our forms, can't fall behind the girls."

* * *

I am secretly dreading my ninjutsu class as I walk down the corridor, I have gotten no confirmation but it is very likely that whatever happened to reveal my captor, it happened in this class. Despite my worries it seemed that Ume didn't actually tell anybody that she had captured me, or at least they did not discuss it around me. There were some off hand comments but most of the students seemed content to chat about their own things. They weren't overly concerned about my whereabouts.

I'm still not sure how I feel about that.

I get to the training ground in a group and we start the class as usual, some people glance my way but really don't see me, but that's not the same for everyone. One or two people stare, but no one speaks. It's a little eerie honestly, I wasn't the most popular in this class, I wasn't popular anywhere but some of the more courageous students would approach and ask my opinion on jutsu. It was one of the only times I really spoke to my classmates. Now though, they didn't really recognize me and no one made an approach. But I know people are looking at me, I can feel it on my neck.

It's like that for two fights and I cannot take it anymore, I go straight to the instructor and ask.  
"What happened here last week?"  
I don't mince words with my instructors, I never have. There is a certain amount of deference to my family and the school is no different. Most instructors go with it, one or two seem a bit insulted by the tone. Shimanouchi-sensei however usually finds it amusing. That was probably because unlike most the instructors he was part of the seven families.

The Shimanouchi were actually a vassal family of the Sumire, most of the students didn't know that because as far as they knew the Sumire had no vassals. Officially, the Sumire were a standalone family who just shared their name over a handful of branches making them the smallest of the seven families. In reality, it probably had the second largest number of vassals supporting them behind the Mizushima. It wasn't common knowledge even among the seven families, but there were very few secrets from the Kishi.  
"So you're back Hiroshi-san, a shame I was getting fun of that little konouchi."

I'm not sure if my glower was deep enough to convey my distaste, but it didn't seem to affect him.  
"You had a question?"  
He asked lightly.

"I already asked, what happened?"  
My tone was low so as to not draw attention.

He paused for a moment to think and reached into his sleeve. After a moment he pulled out a pipe, he occasionally smoked it in class, though I think he kept more for the visual effect because the smoke would often make shapes depending on his mood.

"Well, if you're willing to share, I'm sure we can form an accurate picture."  
He made a gesture with his hand and a flame appeared on his fingertip a trick he was found of to light his pipe. He dragged onto it lazily.

"But it doesn't seem like a topic you would wish to bring up."

"You already know what happened."  
I said the annoyance rising in my voice.

He blew out a puff of smoke.

"Do I? That little konouchi didn't make any mention on what she did with you, she even asked the rest of the class not to speak of it."

I stared at him for a few moments trying to process the new information. They weren't talking about it, they knew but she asked them not to speak. She, she,

"Why?"

"Why what?"  
He looked at me with a lazy expression.

"Why would she do that?"  
She could have, should have humiliated me.

Shimanouchi didn't speak again, instead taking another drag before let out a ring of smoke in the air as we stood in silence.

"What are you thinking Hiroshi-san?"

"I, I don't know."  
I would have done it. If I had beaten her, I would had told everyone, especially my classmates it made me feel. Better, maybe, superior, because even though she was smarter than me I would have beaten her. It would have been…  
"What was she thinking?"

"Don't know,"  
He replied as he tipped his pipe forward.  
"I can only guess."

"What? What do you guess?"  
I ask looking at him. I couldn't think of a reason, not really.

"I guess, she's understands that long term, she gains nothing from treating you badly."  
He was taking his teaching posture, we all recognized it.  
"Hiroshi what are the main aspects of shinobi work?"

"The physical, the political and the mental."  
I replied quickly.  
"Mental for strategy, the political for managing, physical for execution."

Shimanouchi starts to spin the pipe in his fingers.

"Right, what part of shinobi work was she doing? What do you think she excelled at in this case?"

"Um,"  
I think about for a few moments. There was deeper meanings for each individual practice, as well as branches and specialties. Honestly in this case I would think politics but..  
"She didn't collect evidence for blackmail though."

He put the pipe to his lips and took a drag before puffing out, the resulting smoke turned into a bird that dissipated out.  
"Classic Kishi, gather all the dirty secrets and file away, always have a weakness ready to exploit. Loved for their utility, hated for their tactics."

I made a face at him, it wasn't the first time I've heard that saying.  
"What then? What is she doing?"

"Not all politics are about having an advantage on someone Hiroshi-san, not all managing is done with an iron fist."  
He held the pipe aloft.  
"It doesn't cost anything to be nice Hiroshi-san and if done correctly the benefits greatly outweigh the risks."

He turned away to see to the other students.

It wasn't until he was out of sight that I realize he hadn't actually answered my question. Was it really that simple, had she just tried to be nice, but she doesn't even like me, she doesn't…

" _I hate the way you treat other people. I hate that you think that just because we aren't part of the family that we shouldn't be treated if not with respect, with common decency. I hate that nobody ever corrected you in that thinking, but I don't hate you."_

She doesn't like me, but she doesn't hate me. It didn't cost her anything to be nice, so she was. What would I have done if she had actually followed through, if she had actually humiliated me? I, I wasn't sure. If I didn't lash out, my family would have. Something so public and shameful, it would call for retaliation.

Was she really thinking that far ahead though, did she think that far ahead? She was intelligent, maybe, but maybe….

I stand there pondering when I am called to watch the next round of fights.

This would need more research.

* * *

Hi guys, this won't be updated as regularly, but as you can probably guess it will be a retelling of certain events from different points of view.


	2. Kyoko

We were late, kami it was already dark out. I knew we shouldn't have helped that last customer, knew we should have closed the store on time. But it was one of the old women she wanted an arrangement for her daughter's grave, you couldn't say no to that sort of thing. Even though we didn't have to make a new one just picking out the right language the right meaning had pushed us over and by the time we closed up the sun was already setting.

Shit, shit, shit, we had to go.

We couldn't stay in the store overnight, there was nothing to eat and no bathroom either we had to go across the street normally but they would be closed and locked at night. Also there was no heat and while it was cool during the day the night was too cold to sleep in the flower shop. So we had to go, we had to hurry, we couldn't be caught again.

Rai held my hand as we ran through the alley ways. We weren't far now, we'd managed to slip through the backways of the merchants district and avoid their patrols. We just had to get to our home then we'd be safe. We stopped at the alley's edge and he poked his head out to check for the patrol as he smiled back towards me that we're clear his expression changes. I turn my head too late. A hand shoves me against the stone pushing me against it forcefully, my shoulder aches as I stare in terror at the face in front of me.

The guardsman uniform if universally recognized this close to the wall. Dark blue with the white ripples of the hidden mist on the front of his jacket. There's a sword on his hip and a gloved hand is holding my shoulders against the wall.  
"Now look at what we have here. It looks like we have two civilians out after curfew."

"Don't touch her!"  
Rai grabs the arm of the guardsman arm. My eyes are wide with fear, they would hurt him if he resisted. The guardsman turns his head and another hand appears from behind Rai grabbing him in a lock around his neck and spinning him around.

"You know the rules, got to obey the law, or else.."  
The guardsman that had Rai said and another one appeared from the gloom. Kami where were they coming from, and kicked him in the chest. I heard a crack and Rai let out a gasp. The guardsman dropped him and they started to laugh as two more appeared took turns kicking him all the while I stood there my arms pinned to the wall by the guardsman inhuman strength.

No, they were going to kill him now, they could no one would stop them. I wanted to scream but that wouldn't help, I was pinned, if they moved they'd hurt me too, if I screamed and someone else got involved they'd get hurt. No one could stand up the guardsman, they were trained to kill and could do so easily and did so. We were lucky last time, they just threw us in the jail cell, but now it was useless, we were caught and now…

The wind picked up in the alley stray papers fluttered and my hair obscured my eyes for a second before a figure appeared. There was a smack as one of the guardsman was knocked over and past Rai, a second later the figure spun and the one kicking Rai was on the ground and just like they were kicking Rai the figure did a quick snap with their foot and the guardsman went limp.

The figure was small but that didn't stop the guard from going after them with a kunai. There was a clang of metal against metal before the guardsman was thrown back and into his comrade. All that was left was the one who pinned me against the wall. He spun on the figure and out of his grasp I feel my knees go weak. What was happening?

The small figure has the sword in their hands held at their waist level. It's only then I hear them say.  
"Explain."

I have to put a hand on my mouth when I hear the high voice. Was that a little girl? I blink my eyes focusing more on the details. Now that she wasn't in motion she didn't look older than eight but she stood there sword at the ready staring down at the guardsman silhouetted in the moonlight.

"They were,"  
The guards paused a moment looking towards me and I turn away.  
"They were out after curfew."

"And that means you can, beat them?"  
There is venom in the girl's words. It's startling to hear as her gaze in shadow shifts towards me.

"And what did you plan to do with her?"

I visibly shiver as the guards shoulders rise. He was angry, I could see it in his stance. Was he going to strike her down. He starts to sputter out.  
"What does it have to do with you, who do you think yo...oh."

His shoulders drop instantly and I turn to see the girl holding something aloof that freezes my blood. The metal of the headband glints in the moonlight. A shinobi.

Fear creeps into my veins as the guard leave me and Rai alone in the alley with her. I can't move, can't speak as she walks towards Rai and puts a hand on him. What was going to happen? It was like being rescued from a pack of wolves by a mountain lion. There were so many rumors about the things shinobi could do, would do to civilians who crossed their path. She looked young but she had taken out those guards and you couldn't fake those headbands the penalty for such was death.

After a moment she rolls Rai over and pulls him onto her back. How strong was she? It didn't even seem to burden her and Rai weighted thirteen stones. She turned towards me his mass like a cloak over her tiny body.  
"Where does he live?"

It takes a moment for me to process what she says. Why does she want to know? Is she going to try and extort money out of us? What will she do when she figures out we have none? I can't do anything about this though, she has Rai.  
"Not far, we were on our way home."  
My voice is weak as I say this. She just nods.

"Okay, lead the way."

When she leaves I collapse, against the couch when she leaves. What do I do, what do I do? She's coming back. What does she want? What more can they take from us?

I turn towards Rai, I wish he was awake but he winces in his sleep. We can't afford to go to the hospital or to hire a medical nin. Who was she bringing would they demand pay? I'm left alone with my thoughts when there's another knock on the door. I don't open it, I can't it might be the guardsman. As terrifying as that little girl was, now that she was gone they could have come back to take revenge.

A voice calls out from the door, too old to be that girl, one of our neighbors? I inch over and crack it to see another girl. She's maybe twelve and is standing there in a nightgown. She's holding a first aid kit, did one of the neighbors send her over. I had to let her in quickly before the guards caught sight of the light. As I do, the figure I saw in the alley appears and I nearly slam the door out of fright when I feel a pressure on my arm and looked down at the little girl.

"It's okay."  
Her voice is calming. How scared did I look?  
"We're here to help."

I let out a breath. Calm down, calm down, I need to close the door. The girl from the alley slides in between the crack of the door and stands in the corner as the dark haired girl moves towards Rai. I watch her move her hands over Rai they're glowing softly but I can't help but glance at the girl from the eye out of the corner of my eye. She's not looking at me. In the light she doesn't look like a shinobi, her hair is a wild mess of dark red, her eyes are sunken and surrounded by bags. She looks like one of the homeless children that sometimes roam outside the city walls, though her clothing is in better shape and she is not nearly as emaciated. But there is a sword on her side and wrapped around her waist is the ninja headband that she had previously been concealing.

When the other girl she brought turns I pull my attention back to her immediately.

"His ribs are cracked, but it's a small one. The rest is superficial, bruises mostly. He'll be in pain when he wakes up but with time and rest he'll be alright."

The breath I've been holding for I don't know how long escapes my lips and my knees start to give out. He's okay, it'll be okay, he wasn't going to die, we won't have to go to the hospital.

It was over.

* * *

The next week Rai stays at home against his wishes. Every morning is the same, he insists on coming with me, insists all through breakfast and me getting ready, insists it's not safe and he will be fine. But the moment he makes a move to try and get up he's in pain and goes right back down, before insisting he'll do it tomorrow. Ka-san tells me he sleeps most of the day. She's taking time off of her job to help him out and it shows, the house is clean when I get home and dinner is already prepared. It's the right thing that he's not there but it's still lonely, and the closer Thursday comes the more anxious I get.

The guardsman do their rounds on Thursday.

I'm as ready as I'll ever be, but I wish I couldn't be alone. The entire day is just me trying to keep busy, checking stock, making arrangements, relabeling. But as the sun moves through the sky I can't help but glance out the window over the head of customers just waiting. When they do appear there's only one customer in the store. I see them coming from the street. I'm outside watering when I see them in the distance. I freeze as I move into the store. I have to get ready. I rush to the back to get the money and grimace when I count it.

It isn't enough.

Without Rai there to help I've been having to close the store early every day so I can leave with enough daylight to get home. It didn't help that winter was coming and the days we're gradually getting shorter. It was the slower season, we'd get more customers in the winter for people who wanted flowers to go around their house when there were no flowers outside. Damnit, this wasn't good. In the time I spent scrounging about, seeing if we had any extra money tucked away I heard the bell ring. They were here.  
"Coming!"  
I hastily said as I gathered what I could. There was nothing I could do about it, they might break something on the way out but with a little money they probably won't break any windows again.

When I come out I see the three men standing in the doorway as well as the customer who had come in while I was watering flowers. Dammit, I forgot to clear the store.

"Jo-san! You need to le…"  
I trail off as I look at the scene a little better. The five guardsmen are standing completely still, like a picture all there eyes were focused on the girl who's back was turned towards me. Before a few seconds pass they move again their eyes flickering before they turn around.  
"Come on, we have to keep up our rounds."  
The one in front says before turning around. The others nod their heads their stance frantic as they turn and leave the shop. The girl watches them go before turning away from them. When she faces me it doesn't take me long to put it together. It's one of the girls from that night, the girl with the dark hair who examined Rai. What had happened? What had she done? Was she like the other girl, a shinobi?

The smiles at me easily like nothing happened.  
"There you are nee-san, do you have any yellow flowers?"  
It was surreal when she said that. Could she be a shinobi but act so casual? She didn't look like one, but her hands glowed before. I pushed out of my stupor of surprise as my salesman persona kicked in and I helped her towards our selection of yellow flowers. In the end she bought one which she tucked behind her ear before leaving.

* * *

I'm incredibly distracted the rest of the day. It's just an anxious unrest because I don't know what's coming. What's their game? What are they doing? This was a shinobi village but shinobi didn't act like that. They had power pure and simple and they acted on it. They were all the same, the seven families, the shinobi, the guardsman so why was that girl acting so different. What the hell was going on?

This kept me distracted until I got home and ate dinner. Rai caught on very quickly that something was wrong.  
"Kyoko, are you alright are you…"  
He actually hesitated for a moment.  
"What day is it?"  
His voice was grim. He probably had lost track of time sleeping as much as he had. He was laying down even now on the bench in the front room while we ate on the floor around him. Myself, my mother, my father and him so he wouldn't be excluded from the the table.

Ji-san answered.  
"Thursday,"  
He looked towards me realization dawning on him.  
"Did something happen today Kyoko?"

Rai started up again.  
"Did they break something? Was it the windows again or no, did they hurt you?"

He was trying to rise but ji-san caught his arm and made him stay down.

I looked down at my rice bowl. What do I tell them? I wasn't even sure what had happen.  
"No, nothing happened. They didn't,"  
I looked away.  
"They didn't come in today, I think they might have forgotten or something."  
It was a bad lie because that didn't make sense. They never forgot but I didn't know what else to say. What had that girl done? Had she done anything?

No one pushed and the conversation concludes.

The next two days are quiet at the store. The girl doesn't appear again but neither do the guardsman. But no matter what I'm on edge. I couldn't help it, it seemed to simple too easy. I need a rest and when sunday comes I'm relieved because the store is closed that day. It isn't much but being home for a day might ease my nerves. I talk to Rai a bit in the morning before he goes back to sleep and I go about doing some chores. Laundry, cooking, checking the plants, maybe when I have some time I can read a book. As I go about my day though there's a knock on the front door. I'm in the kitchen and ka-san is sitting in the front room. She makes a move to go to the door but I beat her too it.

"Sit down, I'll get it."  
She has to walk with a cane because of her old bones. I want her to take it easy today since she had been such a great help this week.

When I make it to the door and open it quickly.  
"Yes?"  
I look down startled to see the girl with the dark hair. She's in a different outfit, her hair is braided but it's her. She's holding a teapot in one hand and a bag is tucked under her arm. She looks at me for a few moments if she's surprised she doesn't show it as she says.  
"Ohayo nee-san, is Weda-san here?"

"Oh, Kiriko-chan, did you want to try to make tea again?"  
Ka-san pipes from behind the door and I turn towards her the shock on my face evident.  
"Ka-san?"  
My voice is weaker than I mean it to be.  
"Do you know her?"  
I go a little high. She doesn't know, she can't know this girl is a shinobi.

Ka-san smiles at me her wrinkled face brightening.  
"Why that's Kiriko-chan, one of our neighbors. She's been coming every day to try and learn how to make tea properly. She's been getting better and she has such great taste."

"Arigato Weda-san but I'm just following your advise. I tried picked up some citrus blend from the tea shop you recommended. I still cannot get steeping times right, so I wanted your opinion."  
I stand there as she waits for me to open the door wider. She doesn't force her way in, but she probably could. They all have that same monstrous strength. For a little bit I just stare at her before opening the door. I can't shut her out, well I could but I had no idea what she would do if I did. She didn't even looked perturbed about this. She just stood there waiting for me. In the end I opened the door and retreated to the kitchen.

It wasn't a different room, there was no real divider between the two rooms but it was a different space and it allowed me to watch them. I usually wasn't one to pry, but I had to know what she was doing.

The shinobi girl spent about an hour just chatting with my mom like it was the most normal thing in the world, like she was normal. I caught bits and pieces but tried not to hover, tried not to because regardless of what she was planning ka-san seemed to be enjoying herself. She didn't really enjoy herself much anymore. Most of her friends were dead or too old to visit normally, she only had us and even though she said it was enough having someone new to talk to made her happy.

It didn't stop me from flinching when the girl entered to fill her teapot. She moved so quietly, when I turned I nearly jumped out of my skin. She didn't comment on it and just put the pot of the stove before heading back into the front room.

It was another hour before she finished her tea and left out the door. When she walked out I noticed she had left her bag. I picked it up and walked out after her. As I walked out I had to look around for her when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I jumped back and dropped the bag.  
"Ah!"  
I squeaked looking at the small girl who had caught the bag I dropped. She looked up at me her eyes round with concern.

"Where did you come from?"  
I demanded, my voice a little louder. The stress of the visit was getting to me.

"I was just a little bit down the way. Are you alright Nee-san?"  
She had large dark eyes that were filled with concern. For a moment I started to relax, started to think I was being silly, that she couldn't be one of them, but that faded as facts re-emerged in my mind.

"I,"  
I let out a breath and lowered my voice. I couldn't make a scene here on my doorstep. I leaned down and held out the bag.  
"You forgot this,"  
I said it as stiffly as I could. I just wanted this over, then I could think about this, then I could calm down. This was too much.

The girl looked at the bag then at me and shook her head.

"No, I didn't. It's medicine, to help with the pain. I'm sorry I can't do more, I haven't been taught any healing jutsu."

I look at the bag then at her for a few more seconds. I'm not sure what my expression is but she looks at me concerned again.  
"You look scared."  
She said it in a low voice.

"Why are you doing this?"  
I finally managed to get out. Why? Why was a shinobi going out of her way to help us, why had a shinobi stopped the guardsman? They were all the same, sometimes worse. There were always rumors, shinobi were monsters. Outside of the village they killed and stole without remorse, they would destroy entire villages single handedly, no one could stand up to a shinobi except another shinobi but they didn't care. They never cared. That was how Mina died, she defied a shinobi and they killed her with a single strike. I could never forget that sight, never forget the look on her face as she fell.

"Because, I understand."  
The girl said quietly as she looked at the houses.

"Understand?"  
I stared at her.  
"What could you possibly un.."

"You're afraid."  
She said it quietly.  
"You're all afraid. Every day, every hour, every minute you're afraid. I know, because so am I."  
Wrapping her arms around her shoulder she hugged herself a little.  
"There's no end to it, it's dark, it's cold and you wish, you wish that the world was brighter but at the same time you can't see how it can be."

She's shivering when she speaks. She looks so small when she does it but her face smiles lightly as she continues.

"But then you look around, at the people around you and you think maybe it's okay, as long as they are their, that'll it be okay, because you're not alone. But then you're even more afraid, because if you lost them, there'd be no one to be scared with."

I didn't know what to say to that, to her not at first.

"But you're.."

"Yes, I know, and I know you're afraid of me. I'm afraid to, afraid of what others might do to me, and what I might have to do to others to protect myself."  
She let out a sigh.

"I don't want to hurt anyone, I've never wanted to hurt anyone but that doesn't matter. I can't turn away from being a shinobi, and I won't because if I do I might lose more."

"Why were you at the shop? Why did you bring medicine?"

I sputtered out, losing my composure.

"Why are you helping us?"

"Because you need it."

She said it in a soft voice. I stilled at the voice.

"And because I can. There is so few things I can do, so few ways I can help, but I'm here so I can help you. We can help you, so we will because it's something."

She gave me a sad smile.

"It's a little thing, but it's something."

With that she turned away from me and walked away. I didn't stop her, I couldn't think too. I watched her disappear before looking down at the medicine. A lot of this didn't make sense, couldn't make sense. But at the same time, I didn't think she was lying.

* * *

The medicine helped, Rae could sleep more comfortably. Kiriko, the little shinobi girl brought more medicine and ka-san spoke about her sometimes. She was still visiting. She wasn't there the next time the rounds came around but I had plenty of money from two weeks business so they didn't break anything. The week after that though, they didn't come at all. Not to my business, not to anybodies businesses.

I wasn't the only person to notice. As the days got shorter and colder people spent more and more time inside. We started to have our weekly community dinners. It was a time when everyone gathered as food got more scarce each family in our area would meet in one of our houses and we'd have a dinner made from what little could be spared. It was insurance to make sure that even during the shortages of food in the winter months that at least one day out of the week everyone got a full meal into them with any leftovers going to those who for whatever reason couldn't work or couldn't make enough money to support themselves. At these dinners people would chatter and rumors would fly.

"They've been doing their rounds, but haven't been arresting people at night. It's strange, one of them even carried Oge-ji-san home when his back was acting up."

"I heard one of the guards tried to collect money, but the garrison commander chewed him out thoroughly afterwards."

"It's so weird, they've been acting so strangely."

"They're scared, I've heard them muttering towards themselves, something about a rabbit."

"A rabbit?"

"No, not a rabbit, the Aki No Usagi, that's what they call her."  
"Why's that?"  
"Apparently she jumped the wall in a single bound to chase after the Kaguya. They say her hair is as red as blood and her eyes are grey as steel."

The chatter went on along those lines, I never contributed to it. What would I say? I knew who they were talking about but nothing about them. I hadn't wanted to know. Was it really as they said? It was hard to tell. All anybody knew was something had changed and it was something good. At least for now.

* * *

As years end came around everyone was getting busy preparing for the celebration of the seven families. It would be the highest selling point of the year that will hold most people over for the spring when the merchants and the wealthy go traveling. It was a good thing the garrison wasn't collecting money during that time because they would want more of the profits that most people really couldn't spare and lots were working deeper into the long dark nights and having to return late. Ji-san was definitely one of them.

He was the most skilled carpenter in town and had been ordered by several members of the families to wooden gifts to be exchanged during years end. A lot of the time he wouldn't leave his shop at all, spending days on end working to meet to finish the requests. If they were done on time and with skill some of the families would actually pay him the worth of his work. Truthfully the seven families paid much less than the worth of his labor and craftsmanship but he couldn't argue up his prices because they would go elsewhere or stop coming to purchase goods at all. It didn't help the Mizushima were his provider for raw materials and if he didn't give them a discount they would cut him off completely.

I had to visit him during this time or else he wouldn't actually go out and eat. He was so focused on his work. When I came one evening with dinner one evening close to the years end I saw Kiriko sitting on the bench while he was painting something under a magnifying glass. The young shinobi who had this point befriended half the people in my block was sitting on the stool in a puffy striped shirt and dark pants kicking her legs on the stool. Her head was bundled in a headscarf which she had to pull down off her face to speak. I She looked much younger than before.

"Nee-san, how are you?"

"I've been busy, what are you doing here today?"

I hadn't actually seen her since that night, I don't know if it had been intentional but it had given me time to process what she said. I never told ka-san she was a shinobi, or anybody else for that matter. I don't know if they'd believe me or not but I suspected that what she had been doing whatever it had been was part of what stopped the garrison, so in return I didn't out her.

"Nonoro-san's doing a commission for me."

She pointed at ji-san whom I walked over and sat the basket next to him. He was working on a triangular flat piece of polished wood which he was carefully painting on the surface of.  
"It's beautiful, what is it ji-san?"

"A plektra, you use it to play certain instruments, Kiriko-chan wanted a gift for her sister but couldn't think what to get her or how to keep it secret. I asked her what she liked, she said music, apparently she used to play the gottan."  
He started painting again and I peered over his shoulder. I recognized the flowers he was painting but I've never seen them in the village.

I asked curious.

"Apricot flowers?"

"Yes, apparently her sister's name is Ume. I thought it was appropriate."  
Running the brush along a delicate curve he lifted his brush and changed color.

"You're so talented Nonoro-san, I'm so grateful."  
Reaching into her pocket and pulled a small bag out.

"Here's what I owe you."

"It's alright Kiriko-chan, this is just a piece of scrap wood."  
Ji-san responded making a gesture.

Kiriko puffed out her cheeks in an irritated expression. I had to suppress a laugh.  
"That's no good ji-san, you do such good work."

"I won't take your money Kiriko-chan."  
He looked up.  
"You're going to have to go spend that elsewhere."

She shook her head,

"Fine."  
Before she turned to me and held out the bag.  
"Happy Years End Kyoko-san."  
She said with a smile.

I looked at her for a moment blinking at suddenly being dragged into this argument.  
"Kiriko-san?"  
I looked at the bag.

"Take it, Nonoro-san won't let me pay him, so I'll give you your years end gift early. I was going to drop by later but this is fine."  
I looked at the little bag before taking it. It was rather strange because while people exchanged gifts at years end it was usually just between close family and friends. How much time had she really been spending with my family? I didn't know actually. Rai was mostly just sleeping while he recovered from his cracked ribs and then he immediately came to work with to help with the season. Ji-san seemed to know her well and ka-san would often mention her having tea but this was really something. Mind you, it was probably also just a way for her to force ji-san to accept payment from her which was amusing in of itself.

"Thank you Kiriko-san, did you want anything in return?"

"You don't have too."  
She shook her head.  
"Nonoro-san is giving me such a lovely gift."

"Not some flowers then, yellow ones?"  
I asked with a smile.

She seemed to actually think about that.  
"Flowers would be nice, do you have any to spare?"

We had a few in excess.  
"Sure, you can pick some up later."  
Her smile was bright in the winter. I smiled back, I had too. I feared shinobi but I couldn't find myself able to fear her not anymore. She had gone out of her way to help them, just like the Red Rabbit. I paused thinking to the plektra.  
"This Ume, is she the.."

I paused to think how I should say this.  
"The red haired girl."

Kiriko looked down a little bit.  
"Yes, she's been.."  
She trailed off a bit on that.  
"Well I hope this makes her smile."

I set the food down and tug ji-san until he eats. But my mind wanders to that statement, that statement and the scary solemn girl from that night. It was easy to imagine Kiriko smiling, drinking tea, playing a gottan, but her, she looked every bit the mysterious dangerous shinobi from the rumors. To think of her smiling, playing an instrument, laughing at years end it was strange, but I couldn't dismiss it out of hand. I spent so long thinking and rethinking about that night, about what happened. We might have died that night, but then she appeared.

Ninja needed to be feared, they were scary and monstrous. That hadn't changed. But maybe there was something else too, maybe there were those who wouldn't be the monsters in the dark.

Maybe this wasn't something to fear.

* * *

Alright, so first part is straight retelling, but then more detail. Yes I know Kyoko is the alias Ume likes to use so it's a bit confusing, but that's just a coincidence.

Anyway, reviews would be nice if you want some input. If you have questions please PM me.

Also a note, these won't be posted in chronological order, more like story idea and voice grasping order.


	3. Mitsuki

One time in my life I was told that friends aren't people you necessarily choose, relationships aren't born of conscious choice. No matter how little you speak to people, no matter how little you relate people will come into your life and simply not go away, even if you want them too.

This was how I met Minami.

Just like told, she appeared one day at the orphanage, not that I paid her any mind. I had been there myself maybe a month, I was four years old when my grandmother had died. She was all I had, my father was an unknown, my mother had died of illness before my memories began. My grandmother ran a small stall and I helped her as much as I could counting on my fingers and trying to help her with customers. Every day was a struggle, always moving, always working trying to keep afloat, that was of course until she stopped moving at all.

I remembered that, while most other details were blurry I remembered her sitting there, not moving. Then when I went to the orphanage everything slowed down.

It was disturbing to not be moving, to be in such a crowded place, to be forced into the company of so many people all the time. I avoided them whenever possible. I played with stones, I liked stones. My grandmother taught me about different stones, she gathered them, she cut them and made them into jewelry. It was one of the few free things in the world because they were just on the ground, no one cared what you picked up from the ground. I collected them in little pouches and counted them, and stacked them while I remembered her until of course I found one day, they were gone.

Minami had stolen them.

It wasn't hard to determine she had done it because she didn't hide it at all. Any time she saw a kid with something she'd take it one way or another. The only time I've seen her not do so was when she tried to take a box with strings from Ume who responded by biting her so hard it drew blood. When I found her, sitting there in the courtyard, playing with my stones, some of which had been given to me by my grandmother I lost my cool. I wasn't prone to outbursts, not really, but I grabbed five rocks and in time threw them at her. One at each eye, one at her nose, one at her mouth. She was knocked back on her butt a bloody mess.

We were both taken aside and deprived of meals. It was the standard punishment which I think they did to save food. We were both forced in a little room while everyone ate. I had my bag of stones which I was counting in the silence. My anger had long disappeared, I had my stones back so what was the point in continuing to fume. As for her, I had no idea what her reaction might be. She was probably angry, probably going to throw a fit or blame me for what happened. That was fine, the adults were often angry at me when I didn't feel like speaking beyond what was required, if she attempted to hurt me we would just be punished more but that was nothing new. Which was why it was surprisingly when she spoke.

"Where did you learn to throw like that?"

I looked up at her surprised at the tone. She didn't sound angry. She put a hand on her face rubbing her nose.

"You really beaned me with those rocks, you were like half the yard away."

About a third of the yard away actually, the yard outside the orphanage was only six meters wide, I was only two meters away.

"Have you ever skipped stones?"

I blinked at the term. I hadn't heard it before.

"You haven't? I bet you'd be great at it. Come on, I'll show you."

She got to her feet and started towards the door only pausing a moment to listen before she pulled two bits of wire out of her hair that she wiggled into the door lock for a few moments before swinging open the door.

Well that was a rather unusual skill. She gestured for me to follow her and for a few moments I sat there and considered it. In the end I got up, it would be easier to leave with her than to explain to the adults why she wasn't here when I left. They would try to make me explain at least, they would shout at me for a few minutes most likely, maybe even give me a smack for not talking again. It really depended on who came, it would be less loud and easier to just go with her and avoid the trouble.

I followed her down the long windowless corridors, through several doors, occasionally she'd pause put a finger to her lips and I'd just stare at her when she did. Then we were outside and it was, beautiful.

The orphanage was hot, it was loud, it was sweaty. Every room was small, every bedroom filled with much too many people. There was no windows to open, no fresh air in this place, it was suffocating in more ways than one. When we were outside, we were in a walled yard, a wall much too high to climb though orphans would often try, and it was always packed with children trying to escape being inside all the time even in the winter cold. Now though it was night time, we were out one of the side doors and in the night air it was empty, it was fresh, it was cool, and it was silent.

Well almost silent.

Every night we could manage it, I went out with Minami. I couldn't navigate the orphanage without her at least not without getting caught. Every night she would chatter about the day, about the things she had taken. Sometimes went to a small standing pond and skip rocks (smooth flat rocks, not good for making jewelry, but good for skipping). Sometimes we would wander the streets around the orphanage, look at the sparse trees that lay at the edge of the village, and for some reason we would always go near the wall.

It wasn't until about four months after this had started that I found out why.

We walk against the wall when Minami pointed at one of the many gates that lined the wall that had been left ajar.

"Look, look, come on."

She whispered at me before pulling me forward. I followed her by habit at this point and we left the gate and by extension the village to the outside of the wall.

It was the first time I'd have seen it, but clearly not hers because she pulled me along against the wall and into the shadows. Near the far end just under the towers in a blind spot of the guards there was a small huddle of blankets and what looked like a few makeshift shacks. It looked abandoned at first but when we got closer I noticed the piles of blankets were breathing.

Minami crept forward in the darkness approaching the blankets and I watched a distance away. I didn't want to be involved in whatever she was about to do. Technically we were already breaking a lot of rules by simply being outside the village walls, not that Minami had any regard for rules as it is, but whatever was going to happen I probably didn't want to a part of.

I was correct in that.

She did a swift kick to one of the blankets and the person under it let out a cry. A dirty faced boy with pale hair pulled the blanket back and in bleary eyes looked at her for a few seconds and yelled.

"Your back!"

This roused the rest of the collection of people in the blankets who all erupted from their slumber and grabbed Minami in a large dogpile. They were all clinging to her, asking questions, pulling at her sleeves and picking things off of her.

It was big, noisy and Minami was enjoying it. At least until a voice cut through their noise.

"Everyone calm down, we don't want to alert the guard."

It was an older voice, and hobbling forward from the gloom was an older man. He looked a little older than the caretakers, but I couldn't tell really because he was heavily scarred. One of his eyes was missing, as was one of his arms. Looking closer in the darkness this was a recurring theme.

All the kids who surrounded Minami, all of them had some sort of injury or disfigurement. There was a dozen of them, from ages three to about fifteen it seemed. Like the man they carried scars. Some with shorter limbs than normal that noticeably affected their walk, some missing ears, eyes, with scars on their limbs if they had all four of them. The pale haired boy was missing both his shins. Not a single one unscathed.

"Minami, I see you ran away from the orphanage again. You know they get angry at that."

The man said with a sad voice.

"But they're so boring Oki-ji-san."

She started to rustle through her pockets.

"Besides, I brought gifts."

Out of her clothes she pulled out small toys, food wrapped in bits of paper, and cloth that she must have taken from the laundry. She even had a pair of shoes that must have been tied to her back. It didn't surprise me, I was well aware at how well she could hide things on her person.

"Minami I thought I told you not to steal, you don't have to be like that anymore. You aren't like us."

"I want to be."

She hugged onto a younger kid, maybe three years old who had a stump on one of their arms.

"I.. Oh right, I forgot. This is Mitsuki, she's a great shot."

I walked forward. That was what I was expected to do I suppose, but I felt decidedly out of place doing so. This was, I didn't know what this was. I had heard that people lived along the wall, I just hadn't known. But then no one said such things. It did explain why Minami kept stealing things.

"Also from the orphanage I see. Well I apologize if Minami has caused you any trouble, but you two should head back. We should be moving too. Come along."

There was a collective groan among the children but they all started to pack up the blankets.

"But ji-san!"

"Minami, go back to the orphanage."

His voice was solid and stern this time and Minami nodded her head.

That was maybe the strangest thing I'd seen tonight.

Despite their disfigurement they moved quickly and started to move along the gate. Minami didn't follow, in fact she turned around and let out a sigh. It was only then I spoke.

"You're family?"

"What's left of it."

She turned away.

"Two were missing, there's always someone missing."

She said again as we headed back to the orphanage.

We didn't speak of that incident again. Not really, we didn't really have too.

Minami continued to act, well like Minami. Sometimes we were caught sneaking out, sometimes we weren't. We never stopped, there was no reason to stop. They could smack us if they wanted, deny us food but they would never throw us out. In fact if we tried to stay out more than a day they would come looking for us. The orphanage was full because they were looking for orphans, but specific types of orphans, whole orphans. It wasn't until we went to the academy that I understood.

Our time at the academy showed us something about the world we didn't know before. Mostly that standing out was both a good thing and a bad thing. They wanted us to be creative but still do exactly what they said. It was an incredibly complex contradiction that most of the students had trouble with and either went one extreme or another.

Minami went one extreme, she stood out as much as often because she didn't care how much trouble she got into. The only reason she didn't run away like she did at the orphanage was because in her words, there was better stuff to steal here.

I went the other extreme. I was quiet and subdued, so the teachers generally ignored me. I had good chakra control so I was sent to the ninjutsu standard where I was taught an array of ninjutsu. We were told that to pass we had to learn how to use two elements, I learned water and earth, it was the simplest thing to do. The class focused on basic jutsu at first, then moved on more complicated jutsu, then we started using it in combat. I was never entirely interested in complicated jutsu and when we spared I usually used simpler jutsu more quickly to do more rapid fire hits. Or after a very interesting demonstration by Ume who had been unsuccessfully posing as Hiroshi for several days (at least I thought as much, we were warned that she was going to disapeared, I suppose since most of the class weren't in our platoon they were actually surprised), we were encouraged to start using jutsu in combination with other skills. In my case I just threw kunai at people who used jutsu that required more than one sign.

The teacher was rather amused at how I could always hit their arms regardless which side they dodged. It wasn't that hard, there was a pattern, they always moved the same way when they dodged. The only person it didn't work on was Suigetsu, but Minami had apparently stolen a large stack of seals from somewhere and wanted me to use some of the ones she practiced copying. Per her suggestion I wrapped it on the handle of the kunai to hide it, so when I hit Suigetsu with it the accompanying flash startled him enough to make him lose concentration enough to interrupt his jutsu.

Eventually we did our assessment. With some luck and a good shot at the odds we passed. Then we went into specialized training. I was sent to combat company, ninjutsu platoon, Minami was sent to support, genjutsu which she showed her discontent with by in her words trying to escape several times.

It was much the same as the ninjutsu class, except every day, all day with drills on dodging and chakra conservation. If you ran out of chakra you couldn't stop fighting, you had to keep going, keep fighting because if you stopped during a real combat scenario you died. That was main shift, a lot of the ninjutsu students had problems with. They had no way to fight without using large amounts of chakra, in fact we were taught to fight using large amounts of chakra in the most spectacular way possible. It was only now that most of them were focusing on what I realized early in the class.

It wasn't at all efficient or practical for long term combat.

Only Hiroshi really had the reserves to keep up that techniques, but even he couldn't manage it for very long. Everyone found their own solutions to those problems. Most of them just hid or dodged, spent as much time avoiding combat as possible to try and conserve energy. I like a few others would pepper our opponents with kunai to keep the distance to establish distance before launching range attacks.

We all built up a rhythm, a pattern. Everyone had a pattern ingrained into them. If you disrupted that pattern you could beat them, but only if they couldn't find yours. Other students found patterns, some of them tried to change theirs whenever I disrupted theirs, but in the end they would fall back into it. It was comfortable, and automatic. So the days blurred by like that, fighting every day, learning our patterns that itself became a pattern like the rest of our lives had been until the day of the graduation exams.

Then the pattern broke.

A stone stadium, with rows of examiners. The Mizukage watching, the leader of the academy was doing a speech. Then chaos started.

The swordsman Momochi Zabuza started the chaos. Everyone tried to act orderly but I could see it. The comfort of consistency was gone.

They moved us as the fighting continued in the city. We all moved together because we could do nothing else, think nothing else. Outside our formation was a threat we had no gauge or preparation for, a seven swordsman going rogue. Everyone was surprise, well everyone except for one person, but at the time I had no idea to know that she knew of patterns no one else did.

For the first time in several months we were all together, in the small bunker. Minami slid by my side and spoke quietly to me.

"What do you think is happening?"

She seemed, nervous? Well everyone was nervous so it wasn't a surprise.

"The adults are scared."

I said it as low as possible.

"The pattern has broken, they are afraid of what will happen when they try to fix it."

When patterns break is when you beat an enemy. When patterns break is when you must change or you will die. Life is a pattern until it breaks, they it is a struggle. Which was confirmed immediately when they said what was happening next. The next unexpected break in the pattern.

We were now genin.

We were going to the wall to fight.

We were going to fight the Kaguya and if we didn't struggle, didn't adapt, didn't change our patterns, we were going to die.

Minami griped my arm tightly when they announced the Kaguya was here. All her family, all those who lived along the walls were refugees of Kaguya attacks. Those who were not killed in raids, but not lucky enough to come out unmaimed. No village would take them because they couldn't work, no orphanage would take children who couldn't trained to be shinobi. They had stayed at the walls of Kirigakure because it was deemed the safest place, because the garrison was the strongest here that the Kaguya wouldn't come.

They had been wrong. As we were left to ourselves to prepare, not that five minutes was any real amount of time to prepare ourselves, she whispered low and quiet.

"Odds?"

"It depends on the amount of time we are on the wall and how large their forces are."

I said quietly.

"Not very good though."

"Not ours."

She said it again in a hiss. I didn't know what answer she wanted, but I doubt I could give her one that would satisfy her. So I told her the truth, it was all she ever got from me, and as much as she lied I have never caught her lying to me.

"If the Kaguya are already here, then they are most likely dead."

She didn't wince at the information. Likely because she came to the same conclusion. There was just sadness on her face. I felt sad too, I hadn't thought of them immediately but I knew for a long time their situation had always been a poor one. It was why we never stopped going to the wall, even though we were technically forbidden. Why I never stopped Minami from stealing the things of our classmates. Even though we had so little, they had nothing. We were protected because of some tip of the odds we were born and continued to live whole, while they by some other tip had not been. There was no reason for it besides of sheer statistics. Numbers didn't care after all, you couldn't really fool them, sometimes the odds are cruel. Our situation was no different now. Because even though we were whole and healthy now, it wasn't likely we were going to be when this was over. If we were alive at all.

We walked to the wall in formation, in order. There wasn't anything else to do. If we ran we would be die, if we stayed we would also very likely die. That was the cold truth of the numbers.

It didn't make it any less scary when we stood on the wall and saw the horde that awaited us.

We were all frozen at the chaos before us. No pattern to follow, no path to take. If we went down there we would die. If we stayed up here we would die, if we did nothing they would surpass the gate and we would die.

It wasn't until Hiroshi surprisingly spoke that we all acted.

"Strategy twelve!"

We all aligned ourselves to that strategy and sent the flood down before through the chaos it cut through the Kaguya before the next command came. We clung to it, it was our only path in this chaos.

"Seven!"

Now the students had to move aside as we went to the edge and sent light into the water below. It out of our hands and combined down the water then arced through it into all the wet and struggling Kaguya. But it didn't stop them, they kept coming. The next command came from Ume and I winced at it. Only about half the ninjutsu standard could use that technique and I was one of them. But I dare not break formation. If the pattern broke early we would die sooner.

I ran down the wall with others trailing behind me as we did the seals as fast as possible and let the energy pour the chakra pour into the water. Ice spread down the damp wall and pushed through the crowd of Kaguya, some were screaming, I could see it clearly as it passed to the edge of the distance though it was nothing compared to the screams of those caught in the steam. This was necessary, cold numbers, if they didn't die, we wouldn't live. It was sickening to look at but we couldn't break.

"Form a line off the wall! Triangle formation."

We retreated up wall in formation, one person always looking towards the ground, towards the Kaguya as we made it the top. As we did the melee company was called forward into the mob. My breath caught into my chest but I didn't stop.

That was wrong, if they went down there they would die. We needed to choke the wall, but no, the order was sent, if I yelled out a contradiction it would break formation, and it would cause confusion not that it mattered they had all gone, over the edge, into the sea of death.

I winced as I scanned the top but couldn't find who had yelled the order. As soon as got to the top of the wall all the ninjutsu standard course started firing off jutsu into the mob. Large scale jutsu, the most destructive jutsu they could use. This was no good, they were panicking and using too much chakra. There was no pattern, no rhythm, this was bad.

"Stop!"

I yelled this time. There was a startled look on the faces of those who looked at me. I most of them had ever heard me speak before. Not that that mattered, we had to reform, we had to find a rhythm.

"Strategy three!"

Strategy three was the Fire Line, it was when you line up to use water bullets. Every ninjutsu standard knew water bullet, it was the simplest offensive jutsu taught at the academy. There was some confusion but only for a few seconds as everyone reformed and we all shot water bullets off the wall edge of the wall. It wouldn't do much damage, but it didn't have too. In concentrated fire the main point was just to knock them off the wall into the battle below. Once they went down into ground below, they wouldn't come up from the horder again.

While we did that several of the swordsman standard stood on the wall to hold off the Kaguya who made it through the firing line.

They didn't last very long.

Several of them were pulled down and off the wall by the Kaguya who would push them off slightly or make them be hit by water bullets as they made their mad dash upwards. Any who fell off the wall would not likely make it back up, not in that horde. Only Chojuro who made an effort to keep moving and avoid our fire managed to stay on the wall but the actions of the other ninjutsu course students who used too much chakra earlier weakened the consistency of the line of fire. The Kaguya running of the wall quickly moved towards those weakened area and when the first one made it to the top of the wall the entire formation fell apart.

Several of the students scattered, others ran for cover. They were doing what they were used to doing as ninjutsu students, running and dodging and avoiding the trouble. It wouldn't stop them though because as the Kaguya came in a wave they were plowing forward.

I jumped back away from the edge as the things went to hell and pelted the Kaguya coming up with Kunai. Unfortunately they were all blunted, we were equipped for a graduation assessment not a battle and given no time to equip real equipment. Because of that I had to aim for tender areas, eyes, crotch, legs. If I could slow them down maybe we could stem the tide. I could see no hope of making an organized effort of those on the wall as everyone was running around, some fighting, others dodging, several falling as more and more Kaguya scaled the wall.

I quickly ran out of weapons as they came up the wall and had to start evading but I was running low on chakra too. Though that strategy was not working well for many of the students low on chakra. It wasn't looking good. I was caught by a Kaguya who slashed my arm with a weapon severing a tendon and making it lay useless at my side before they punched me in the gut knocking the wind out me as I lay on the ground. I knew I had lost to the numbers, I was going to die here as the odds said I would have. It was sad, not angry,

just sad, I didn't want to die, especially how this rampaging wolf would kill me. But I knew it had been coming so I closed my eyes and whimpered as I waited for the hit. It was then I heard it.

"Turtle stance!"

The garrison and every student with their senses about them responded instantly. There was a snap of wire as in the dry air there was a shimmer before it tightened. All the Kaguya rushing forward and the one standing over me were suddenly caught. The wire was heavily weighted on both ends and had been flung with some force from both sides of the guard towers.

Those caught were forcibly pushed together in a tight grouping stumbling over each other.

"Scatter!"

The voice came again and a few seconds later a kunai was thrown into the center of the mass and the explosion sent the cluster down in a heap.

I recognized that trap of course, as I recognized the voice. I had gone over it several times with Minami about why using explosives in close quarters was impractical because of the uncontrollable blast radius. Which made the solution of clustering the Kaguya with the wire then sending a blast in the center rather brilliant for preventing friendly casualties. Given the angle the kunai came from it must have meant.

I looked up and saw her standing up on top of the guard tower. She made a gesture for me to come. I quickly ran up the tower, as did several other students since more Kaguya were coming. When I got to the top I saw she was bleeding, there was a heavy gash on her stomach. On closer inspection it appeared she was hit with the recoil from a particularly taught ninja wire when it was snapped. When she set the trap she must not have been clear. She was bleeding heavily and breathing hard but she was smiling as she pointed off into the distance. I turned to see what she was looking at and saw a wave a shinobi coming from in the city. Reinforcements were coming. We had survived, if we hid properly we had survived. We had been lucky, we had beat the odds.

We weren't going to die today.

* * *

When the battle was finished we went to the hospital and after the bleeding was stopped forced to wait several days until they could properly give us stitches for our wounds. It was only then we were allowed to leave and immediately after we went back to the wall. The ground outside the village was still scarred, but all the bodies had been moved. We had been told they had been burned to avoid the spread of disease. There was no sign of them, not of the refugees, not of the Kaguya but the blood was still there. It was soaked into the wall, all over the wall, it would take several days of rain before it would be completely gone.

"Do you think they got away?"

No, I didn't think they got away. I knew of course who Minami was talking about. We were at one of the spots, just in the blind area of the guard tower.

"It's possible."

"If they saw them coming, they might have ran. They were good at running."

She said again.

"At least with the Kaguya gone, there won't be…"

She choked at the last word and sagged. Tears pooling in her eyes. I grabbed her around the shoulders and she leaned into my shoulder as she sobbed. Sobbed at the loss, the pain and the unfairness of it all.

The family she had wanted to choose, the one she wanted to stay with but couldn't was gone. The friends we had made at the orphanage, were broken. It was all broken, and there was no repairing the pattern.

All we could do was make a new pattern, a new normal, adjust, adapt so as to find that comfort again.

It would be hard, but there were still constants on our life to rely on for guidance. Minami knew that, because she as unpredictable as she tried to be was a constant. As was I. For now that would have to do.


	4. Benjiro

Benjiro

It's been a few weeks since our barracks blew up. It was sad, we didn't really have much to begin with and what little we did have burnt up in the rubble. Then there was what happened to Ume. Truthfully when we rounded the corner and found her there it was one of the ugliest scenes many of us had ever seen.

She was just lying there, crumpled on the remains of her instrument like a broken doll. It was, haunting.

That's how I felt about it and there were only about three reactions. Crying was one, a lot of the girls and some of the boys, they all cried at Ume's condition. Kiriko the most, I didn't think she would ever stop. It made things absolutely miserable if you joined in on the gloom. The second reaction was straight up anger. Enji lead that group, yelling and cursing trying to plan revenge, Manami joined in and they tried to push for something similar, some sort of retaliation. I was a bit of that too, I would sit in on it sometimes but mostly I was part of the third group of reactions, which made up the majority of us honestly.

It was a silent dread.

We were haunted, not just because it happened but because it could happen again. Some of us admitted to being glad it hadn't been us. It was selfish, but I had been glad too. I, I don't know if I would have continued if I got hurt like that. Ume doesn't seem to care, in fact she flaunts that it happens whenever we train. Shows her scars off to the other platoons in defiance, like they don't scare her, like they didn't really hurt us. It, after what happened, it helped a little bit and some of the others started to believe that was true, that we weren't scared and that we would beat them, beat the challenge before us, but most of us knew the truth. That was a lie because, we were all scared because for the first time we probably got a look about what our future would be like.

I never really thought about the future until now, not really. My life was relatively simple. I was left at the orphanage as a baby, grew up in the crowded halls and I sort of just blended in. It was what I always did, it was easy and it was comfortable. That didn't change when I got to the academy. I was a basic course student, I would go to class, follow the drills, push myself forward but I had no need to excel so I didn't. I didn't even think I could. They passed their judgement on me long ago, I had some control, but not enough to be in any of the standard jutsu courses. I could fight a little, but I wasn't fierce enough or aggressive enough to be put in a fighting course. I was one of many shoved into the basic courses and just expected to slide on through, and I was okay with that because if I was being honest I didn't want to be here anyway. But what I wanted didn't matter because in the end I really didn't have a choice, or to be more specific, I wasn't brave enough to make it.

Wataru had been, he was one of my best friends at the orphanage, he had even made it into one of the standard courses. But whatever they did to them there, whatever they showed him on the first day, it, it scared him, scared him so much that he just ran, didn't leave a note, didn't even say goodbye, just ran from the academy and never looked back. I had always wondered what had scared him so much that he would risk leaving the village, risk leaving everything we had ever known.

I didn't wonder that now.

We were afraid, all of us. So afraid that we didn't sing, so afraid that we barely ate. For the last few weeks our fear drove us to do only one thing, prepare.

Every moment we weren't training, we were planning. Every moment we weren't planning we were doing drills, assigning formations, trying to create every advantage we could and using every method available to us to do it. I wasn't one of the planners, I wasn't smart enough, but I listened and tried to get every bit of it possible. Even I couldn't keep with our two leaders. Technically, we had five leaders, but in reality we really had two, Hiroshi and Ume. They called the shots for two reasons, one because Ume was probably the only person who wasn't afraid, or if she was, she hid it the best. Two, because we were in Hiroshi's house.

Honestly, most of us didn't like Hiroshi. Years of his abuse left us with a bad taste in our mouths, but he was putting us up when he didn't have too. A lot of us feared that if we didn't listen or play along he would just send us back to the academy and have to deal with whoever had bombed us in the first place. Maybe it wasn't a great reason to listen to someone but it wasn't like we would all be buddy buddy with him like Enji suddenly was because he decided to change his clothes and play nice.

So we followed their lead because they were willing to do so and eventually we got to the day of the assessment. Most of us didn't talk as we jumped forward but eventually we split off path and Ume took the stage in the tree. Clapping her hands to get everyone's attention even though she didn't have too. There wasn't really anything else we were thinking about except for getting this done.

"Alright everyone, here's the deal. We don't know what we'll be doing today, but Hiroshi has apparently gotten some insight on the challenge through his connections. It will be something like a mission simulation. All missions have objectives, so we will be splitting into two groups. One is the objective group, the other is the rear guard group. The rear guard will be the four sword formation with the addition of Kiriko whom will be using a mass bushin to stand in for the rest of our platoon. The objective group will be three teams, one acting as a scouting unit, the other two will be responsible for obtaining the primary objective."

Everyone muttered among themselves but there was no objections. The scout team was Gonmaru, Daisuke, Maemi, and Akio or all the members of the taijutsu standard course. They weren't an official team but they were grouped together because if things went bad and they got caught sneaking they were way more likely to survive a struggle. A lot of our training was basically us trying to avoid direct fighting. It was even explained as such because frankly we were outnumbered. If it came out to a direct confrontation, we would lose, and that meant we would die. Even if we weren't killed by the other students being part of the garrison would.

We all knew what happened to people sent to the garrison.

As lined they up, the swordsman all surrounded Kiriko who did a few handsigns and recreated our entire platoon worth of bushin. It was eerie as all hell as I saw my face looking back at me before they jumped away.

We moved away from them, keeping a good distance away but following the same general path. The meeting place as it turned out was a rough ragged beach that had giant rocks on either side. We all hid among the trees and distanced ourselves from the area as we waited for our cue. There was no talking, I don't think many of us breathed as we sat still waiting to be found out.

It felt like forever before we got a signal from Hiroshi who got confirmation on his radio. There weren't many radios overall, Ume and Hiroshi got one because they were in charge, as did everyone in the rear guard but the rest were scattered by squads. I don't know why they gave me one, but I answered my check in as we started to the water. Hiroshi pulled out two scrolls and out of them two large boats came out. Good lord, how in the world did they fit in such tiny pieces of paper? I never got how seals work. I knew Minami liked to play with them, wherever she had gotten them but that didn't make any sense.

I was went into the first boat with seven other people while everyone else piled into the second boat. We then tossed lines to hold the boats together. Once the scouting squad was in Mitsuki started doing a water jutsu that pushed both boats forward. This was one of our scenarios if we had to travel over water. While we could run the distance to shore it would take a lot of energy and since we only had two ninjutsu standard anyway they could just push the boats instead. I once heard Ume say it was like a motor, whatever that was, but it worked. We rocked back and forth while Minami did a few handsigns.

"Yin Release: Perceptions Slight."

There was starting to get all wavy around and it was hard for us to look at each other. Apparently this was the best Minami could do for genjutsu. Unlike Kiriko who focused on making things look real or fake, Minami made things feel real or fake. She could make you feel like you had to move one way instead of another, that even though you see things out of the corner of your eyes you should ignore it. No one else used genjutsu quite like that, but apparently that's how genjutsu was. She told me once when I asked how Kiriko could make so many bushin and she couldn't. Apparently even though they were taught basic genjutsu at second year they had to make up their own genjutsu because apparently it works better when you come up with the concepts your trying to create yourself. Which if she made this up by herself, I could understand why whenever she used it in an area it made it hard to focus, trying to look at other people in the boat gave me a headache because much of what Minami did created headaches.

As we got closer to the island, we untied the rope and separated one boat going in one direction pushed by Hiroshi, my boat going the other with Mitsuki. The island wasn't that big but it was agreed on the way there that it would be faster if we each took a side and searched. When we got to shore Daisuke and Hiroshi dropped us off then pushed off shore so no one on land would attack it. The rest of us broke up into pairs to search the island. I was with Maemi, Minami was with Kaito, and Tara was with Machi. Even though we had a head start the task itself looked daunting. The island may not have been that big, but it was still a lot of ground to cover and it was completely covered in trees. Some of the others started tree jumping while Maemi tried to follow I grabbed her hand.  
"No, we should stay on the ground. We might miss a shrine if it's under the trees."

"I didn't think of that."  
She nodded.  
"Come on."  
She took the lead while we ran into the brush. The ground was rocky and rugged, we had to be careful as we ran into the trees. We didn't really have much way to tell where we were going, or how far. I was searching the trees for, something. Really I wasn't sure. How in the world was this even going to work? The moment the other platoons got here we would be overwhelmed. Even if we found the scroll it would probably be taken from us just as easily. Most of our fighters aren't even with us. This was going to be a nightmare once we, wait.

I turned my head as I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was stone, a lighter color than the stone around her.  
"Maemi, look!"  
She turned her head.  
"You found it. Great job let's just…"  
She was interrupted when my radio went off with a message.  
"We have infiltrators!"

It was Gonmaru's voice. They were here, darn it, they were here what were we going to do.

There was another voice on the radio.  
"Status report."  
It was Ume. I responded.

"We think we found one of the shrines."

"Okay, if you found it, don't go to the beach, don't talk to anyone, even if they look like us. Stay hidden and find another way off the island."

I didn't reply as Maemi pulled me along and we went to the shrine. Sitting on it was between two incense sticks a scroll rolled up tight. She grabbed it and we turned. There was a rustling behind us. After a moment she looked at me and shoved the scroll into my hands.  
"Split up!"

"What?"  
I said looking at the scroll.

"Go! I'll lead them away."  
I tried to protest but she pointed at my neck.  
"I don't have a radio, get to shore!"

Then she sprinted off in one direction, and then I was alone at the shrine. Shit, shit, shit, what do I do? Why did we have to find this, if I mess this up we're screwed if I…

There was rustling in the bush and again and I looked around. If I jumped into the trees they'd hear me. What do I…  
My eyes wandered to the shrine it was surrounded by rocks I moved to the other side of it and curled myself up and used a henge and held my breath. I looked like a rock, but if I moved or breathed it'd give me away. That was when I heard it. Four sets of footsteps walking to the shrine. They stepped forward and one of the males huffed.  
"It's gone."

"What?"  
This one was female.

"You heard me, look, it's not there."  
The male said again.

"What do you mean not there, they can't have gotten there already."  
A different female. I couldn't tell my eyes were shut as I tried to concentrate on not moving, not breathing while I held my henge.

"Someone must have gotten here first."  
The male again. Another person came closer I heard their footsteps.

"You sure it's not hidden somewhere."  
He started moving his hands around the rocks, oh shit, he was getting closer. I was going to be found. This was it, we were going to fail, we were going too…

There was an explosion off in the distance.  
"What?"  
There was a buzzing off their radio.  
"Report, we need help. Somebody trapped one of the shrines!"

"Is there a scroll there?"  
One of the girls replied.

"We see it, but we are hesitant to approach. The rest of my team is down."  
The voice was frantic on the other line.

"Send us coordinates, we're on our way."  
I heard them breathing, them walking and then jumping but I still didn't dare to move or breath. It might have been a ploy, maybe they knew I was there and waiting for me to breath. Another minute went by before I finally let out a breath and opened my eyes. Breaking my henge I looked around the clearing. No one was there. I didn't pause to look for them I just sprinted forward back away from shore. I hit my radio.  
"Hiroshi, I got the scroll, bring the boat to the back of the island, they're fighting on the beach."

"Got it."  
The voice came loud and clear and I let out a breath. As I ran I heard bits of static over the radio from the fighting and was that singing? Maybe it was the stress getting to me. He was still there that meant they hadn't found him either. I ran to the other end of the island, it was a rocky cliff as opposed to the beach so it would have been harder to make an approach as I got to the edge I saw the boat in the distance and I almost let out a sigh of relief when a voice rang out.  
"Status report?"  
I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard it but the familiar pitch told me it was Ume again.

"Was there singing earlier?"  
I blurted out as I stood there on the edge. Maybe it wasn't an appropriate question but I was curious.

There was a pause before she responded with song lyrics which I answered. Oh, it was an id code. I guess if there were infiltrators we'd need one.

"Okay, status report? Have you met anyone?"

I thought of my response. I was alone, but I wasn't supposed to be, what would I tell her.  
"Yes, but we henge into some rocks and they passed us."

Why was I lying to her about this? Maybe I was nervous. I really hoped Maemi was okay, but at the same time I couldn't go back to her, if I got caught this would be wasted.

"We got the scroll. Hiroshi is pushing the boat back to shore. We weren't able to find Minami though so we're visible."  
She was probably too busy trapping shrines.

"We're coming around the other side."

"Alright."  
She replied before turning off. I looked down at Hiroshi as he came to shore and let out another breath. We were almost there.

As Hiroshi came around to shore, Ume, Akio, Daisuke (who had jumped off the boat when the fighting had started to help), Enji and Suigetsu ran alongside the boat. They did another code phrase before getting on and Hiroshi pushed us forward to the other shore. When Ume saw Chojuro she checked his radio but things went to hell when he failed the code phrase. That was when they appeared.

Out of the area on shore, our end point came an entire platoon unscathed and they were after our scroll. Kami, we couldn't hold them back. We were exhausted and they were just waiting there for us. Ume yelled for cover and Hiroshi put up a mist she just looked at us as she did the hand signs, decoy, go overboard, scatter. Then she took another scroll from Hiroshi and disappeared out of the mist. As she left Daisuke, Enji and Akio ran off the boat to try and fight. Suigetsu had gone into the water leaving me and Hiroshi in the boat. Hiroshi stopped the jutsu and started pushing the boat again as more of the platoon landed on the water around us. He looked at me for half a second before saying.  
"Sorry about this."

"About what…"  
Then he grabbed the side and tipped the boat. We both went straight under water. I hadn't been ready and took a mouthful of it before I pushed away and broke the surface. When I did Hiroshi was gone and I was surrounded. Three members of the platoon from off shore put me in a hold I couldn't break. Even if I did break it I wasn't fighting out of here. As the mist cleared completely I saw Ume jumping about on shore before something catches her eye and she just stops and then everyone is on her. When that happens someone in the pile surfaces with a scroll and yells out.  
"We got it!"

With that cry the ones holding me look at me for a moment.  
"Well that means game over, sweet dreams."

I let out a gasp of pain before the darkness creeps into my vision. My worry is drifting away though because if they really think they got it then this really worked, we really beat this, we were going to live.

For now.


	5. Gonmaru

Gonmaru

Chunin Exams Part 1

I sat in the courtyard still reeling a little from the information. They wanted us to represent the seven families? Well they wanted seven of us, plus one extra to represent the seven families. This was so weird. Hiroshi had said they were basically going around the Mizukage's back to do this too. This was probably just another stupid power play. Almost everything the seven families did was just another way for them to undermine someone else in power, be it the Mizukage or another seven family. If you looked closely that's what it always was.

Some of the others noticed that, Hiroshi knew of course, hell his family recorded most of those happening. Mitsuki did too, but she like me didn't comment on it, it wasn't a great way to live very long. Ume noticed, and it pissed the hell out of her. These last few months were hard on her because I knew they punished her for it and put her on sanitation duty. I didn't have the details but before I entered the orphanage I heard in passing it was a punishment given to show people their place in the village which if the seven families were mad at you was pretty light.

I'd seen worse consequences on being on the bad side of their anger.

I'd just finished my session with the Aozora. They had asked if I played an instrument, but didn't seem terribly impressed when I played drums for them. They were such snobs about it, We Will Rock You was a great song. I didn't think they would pick me, but honestly it was probably a formality before they picked Kiriko. She was soft spoken, pretty and polite, just the type of person they'd want for a diplomat. They were definitely going to choose her, but she was too nice to be one of them.

Truthfully I didn't want to be apart of this, but I couldn't back down. No matter what happened my friends would be caught in the middle of this and I couldn't let them go alone. I was going to have to bear with this I knew that, but that didn't make it any less easy as the Akebino man appeared before me.

He was a large man, as they were known to be with a wide nose and flat features. He was dark clothing that hid a figure full of muscle. There was a katana visible on his hip. The similarity was striking to that person, but he wasn't the same. His eyes were a brighter color. I remember the eyes very vividly, dark as the coal that you put in the furnace.

"Hello genin, my name is Akebino Yama."  
His voice was loud and boisterous. I had to visibly control my face to not react. A lot of Akebino tried to act friendly, but that didn't change what they were. They were the front line fighters, the soldiers who took the hits and did the damage, the honored swordsman of this village.

Basically they were murderers who could smile at you as they slaughtered you. I knew that much first hand.

He walked forward and eyed me for a few moments.  
"You got good muscular, combat company?"  
He asked and I stared at him before saying quietly.

"Taijutsu."  
I let the word come out but I couldn't hide the malice as it escaped my lips.

"Good man, no tricks or flare, just two fists to do the job."  
He unbuckled his sword from his belt and set it down.  
"Now let's do the test."  
He set himself into a ready position and I did the same. A combat test, I could do that I suppose. I set myself in a low stance and waited for him to initiate. He didn't falter as he lunged forward.

We used much the same style, it was something given to most of the bigger students it had a high emphasis on grappling and strong slow blows. It wasn't much use against faster opponents, it was more suited to be used in groups where one of them specialized in immobilization. In my team Fujiko would usually catch someone with the water prison technique or a water whip while Benjiro ran interference. After several switched grips I got him in a headlock. There was a tingling on the back of my mind. The way this hold worked I could twist it just a little bit and I might break his neck. Anger seeped into the back of my mind of that night, of the fire, of my mother in flashes but I snapped back into reality when he twisted out of the hold and pinned me instead.

It was then that he called it and I sat back down. My breathing evened out and Akebino looked at me.  
"You are very strong, you would be an excellent fit for the honorable Akebino."

My face was blank as I held back the retort in my eyes. Instead I forced out a chirp.  
"Thank you."  
It was short and clipped. If anybody who knew me heard it they'd be surprised. The only thing honorable about them was that they stabbed you in the front. I stood up turned around it sounded like a dismissal, not that I cared if it wasn't at this point. I had to get away from him. If I did something now it might blowback on my friends.

He spoke again to my back.

"Yes, I think you would do well with us, Hagane-san."

I froze at the words as they left his mouth. My fist clenched again as did my teeth. My breathing was heavy but I took another step forward.

"My name is Gonmaru."  
I said it low now, trying to not bring attention to it. He couldn't see my face, which probably explained his next response.

"Yes, Hagane Gonmaru, a fine name I think. You have their strength, you would be a fine representative."  
He took a step forward and I could see his movement. He was going to grab my shoulder.

I took another step forward to avoid it.

"I think,"  
I said through grit teeth.  
"You should consider someone else. I am not who you think."

"You could be no one else."  
He insisted.

My breathing was ragged but I didn't face him. My face was hot as was my body but I had to calm down. I couldn't fight them, even if I wanted to, even if I could, he'd probably just kill me. That was the Akebino were best at.  
"I am only Gonmaru, and no one else. I have more interviews to attend."

"Are you cer…"

"No."  
I said it with as much malice as I could manage.  
"Get someone else."  
My pace increased as I left the larger man behind. I couldn't lose my temper here, it would prove nothing, it would do nothing. Anger like this had to be locked away. I wouldn't be a slave to it, I wouldn't hurt people like they did.

I wouldn't be like the people who murdered my family.

* * *

I sat down on the grass trying to calm down. It had almost happened again, I almost let my anger get the better of me. That wasn't good. I promised myself I would never do that again, not after the last time.

As I was trying to center myself a figure appeared before me. He was tall and lanky and dressed in dark purple. Couldn't have been anybody but a Hamasaki. He didn't say anything as I looked at him just sat down and waited. After about a minute of this he let finally spoke.  
"Calmed down?"

He smiled at me and I looked at him for a moment before I spoke again.  
"You were watching?"

"Nah, just saw your retreat from Yama, man never knew how to take a hint."  
He was using a very relaxed tone with me but that didn't mean anything. He was a Hamasaki after all, they stabbed you in the front, the back and if they could manage in the balls.

"Another combat interview."  
I stood up and did a few stretches. The last fight hadn't been very long so it was best if we just got this over with.

"You got it, we'll start about, now!"  
Then he jumped onto me like a wild monkey.

I twisted putting my arm over my face, you let them do so Hamasaki will go for the eyes. We had to fight one our first day of taijutsu standard, it wasn't pretty. He did several short punches and kicks aimed for tender areas. I had to maneuver myself a few steps back before I could get my footing enough to put a hand on him. He was bigger and taller me but we were probably about the same weight so I put an arm around him and shifted so we went tumbling to the ground. I adjusted my roll and pushed him off of me to get out of his initial grab. He went straight at me again I met him with a charge and an elbow. He managed to jump that and get on my back which I reacted by slamming backwards into a tree. It was much the same way I got Minami off of me when we sparred. He slid backwards off and tried to get a kick at my legs but I spun on him. He aborted the action and palm fisted me in the chin that knocked me off balance and he hit my knees again and pushed me down. After a few moments of that he looked onto me.  
"Your pretty good. You should have hit the tree harder though."

"I don't fight to maim."  
I said as I pushed myself up.  
"Not against friendlies."

"Really, I'm surprised you didn't maim Yama then."  
He stretched his shoulders.  
"Well I got what I needed. You can head off to be interrogated by the others."  
He didn't say much else as he left. I just sat down and tried to get my breath in order. Today was just one of those days.

* * *

When they announced my name for the Hamasaki I was half relieved half annoyed, I was relieved because it meant I was going and I didn't have to spend any amount of time with the Akebino. I was annoyed because it meant I had to spend time with the Hamasaki.

I walked with Nero the Hamasaki who had interviewed me as we went to the compound. It was similar to the Kishi compound except it used most indoor space for sparring and the far side was a series of caves. He left me alone for about thirty minutes and then eventually returned with, Minami. I blinked at looked at her for a moment and she waved. She sat down as Nero left.

"Okay, so they're."

"Training me, apparently there is no rule that says they can't and apparently they like my style."  
Minami said brightly.

"Does Mitsuki know?"

I asked quietly and she looked at the door.

"She'll probably figure it out, though honestly we are basically living here for the next two weeks. Plus they said they'd let me pick up more tags and ninja wire."  
She was practically bouncing at the idea. I smiled back at her. At least someone was going to have fun. After a few moments though she stopped and looked at me.  
"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."  
I said it quickly.

"No really, what's wrong. You're usually much calmer than this. You haven't been this tense since we went to the wall."  
Minami said it matter of factly. She was a lot more observant than people gave her credit for. But then no one ever gave us credit for anything.

"It's not like they're actually doing us any favors. We're just tools to them. That's all anybody is to the seven families."  
I leaned over to the table and put my head down.  
"Honestly I wish we didn't have to do this."

I didn't see her expression but I felt a pat on my back.  
"Eh, that's life, well our life. At least we can try to enjoy it while we're here."

"That's exactly what you need to do."  
The voice of Nero came out as he opened the door.

"Well that, and win."  
He crossed his arms.  
"But I think we can manage that much. If we take this tournament home it would be a testament to our strength and resolve."

More like it would be a way to tweak the other families in the nose. This was another power play and we had to play along. I nodded hiding my frown.

* * *

The next two weeks were mostly adaptive combat training (dirty fighting) as well as jutsu training mostly. The Hamasaki were by and large, earth natured which meant they were experts in creative earth based jutsu. It probably wasn't a coincidence they chose myself and Minami to train since out of our group we were two of the three who were earth natured. Chojuro was the third one, and everyone else excluding Ume was water natured. They were interesting jutsu to say the least, we did a few basics to start but a lot of them were about strengthening your body or manipulating earth in strange ways. The Earth Sculpting jutsu was one I'd never heard of before. You could literally mold stone with it to make weapons and projectiles if you wanted too. Not that I was really trained for that but still.

Minami and I were put in the same room. Either because it was easier to keep an eye on us that way or not I didn't know. I did know every time I got up too quickly I triggered a wire trap and got a variety of surprises. Usually something like cold water, or a low grade flash tag. It wasn't a pleasant way to get up but I couldn't find it in myself to get mad at her for it. On the last day she just shook me awake. That shocked me more then the string, I was a heavy sleeper for a shinobi, but I got up and she looked around as she unfurled a scroll.

I leaned over at it looking at it with a careful eye. It took a moment to fully comprehend but I nodded.  
"So you need me too."

"Yep, you're better at the jutsu."  
She said with a smile.

I paused and looked at the paper.

"They may kill us for this."

"Not now they wouldn't, otherwise they'd lose their own ins to the exams."  
Her smile as she rolled up the scroll and tucked it into her pocket.

The last day with them was mostly just them loading us up with equipment then storing them in scrolls. They had to, the sheer amount of weapons and wire Minami requested wouldn't be able to carried normally. I had comparatively little so they sent me ahead which meant I had to do rest of set up.

Apparently she had been sneaking bits of it in inconspicuous places over the last two weeks. The area we were training in was always a mess because earth jutsu can seriously mess with landscaping. The Hamasaki didn't even bother to clean up afterwards and used the extremely uneven terrain for combat training. So after some mapping I connected the pieces and reconvened with Minami as we walked to the others.

I didn't see the results of the trap, but we did hear Nero's screams and the sound of tossing mud, we had to restrain ourselves from laughing.

* * *

Everyone was stunned when we got to Kumo. Even Mitsuki who always looked disinterested in anything was turning her head in surprise. It was so busy and bright, inside the rock towers there wasn't an inch of wasted space, every floor had some purpose and everyone was moving as frantically as ants.

The cable cars, as the guide called them were amazing. We all knew that the Land of Lightning had electricity, it was in our briefing, but how much could they use to move something so big. It didn't even seem hard, there were at least three cars on the circuit and every other person acted nothing of it. Like the fact that they had flying carriages on wire wasn't amazing. Maybe to them it wasn't, but I pressed my face to the window to look below, the people moving between the stones really did look like ants from up here.

When we got to our rooms I don't think I'd ever been a room so nice. The floor was covered in fabric. The moment the door was closed and it was just myself and Hiroshi I leaned down to get a grip on it, it was so soft.  
"What is this?"

"Carpet, I've only seen it once before in a Mizushima compound. It's not used often at home because it absorbs water really quickly and without constant upkeep will grow moldy."  
Hiroshi sat down on one of the beds on the wall. He bounced slightly and seemed moderately surprised. That was amusing, Hiroshi like Mitsuki often tried to school his face of his emotions. It made him hard to relate to early on. Well scratch that, the fact that he had been a bully for most of our school days did that. Eventually we grew used to his presence as he was often part of our attacking squad in combat drills and also was Ume and Kiriko's teammate. It helped he had been there on the wall, he had experienced that pain as well, had fought, even though some of us were still uncomfortable around us (mostly my team, Fujiko hated him, Benjiro had a hard time accepting him), he never reverted to his old ways and tried to be friendly even though he did not have much practice in doing so.

"How's the beds?"  
I bounced down onto it next to him the ripple was instantaneous. He bounced up but held on and didn't bounce off.

"Softer than I expected."  
He put a hand on the bed before looking around. Apparently there was some sort of mechanism because when he pulled back a lever the back slid up and it became a chair. We both looked at it then immediately looked under the bed. It was a collection of metal bits all pressed to the underside under strands of thicker metal held down like a bento with strips of seaweed.

"Any idea?"  
I said to Hiroshi who shook his head.

"None, the only person I expect to have any inkling as to how this work is Ume."  
He sat up onto the chair/bed.

"How would Ume know?"  
I sat back onto the chair/bed next to him bouncing a little to test the seat.

"I don't know, but she seems more, I don't know, comfortable here? She wasn't as surprised as the adults of things we saw. She was surprised, but calmed down much more quickly."  
He said as he leaned back.

"Huh."  
I leaned back as well not surprised at his response. I could believe Hiroshi had been looking at Ume when entering an unknown environment. While Kansen was their team leader in combat situations he and Kiriko always took cues from Ume to take the lead. When we worked as a unit for combat simulations it was the same. Ume always went first so we always followed.

"Why do you think that is?"

"I don't know. Nothing about her past suggests she'd have any previous experience with such things. Unless of course the Sumire had information that they gave to her exclusively. That does seem like something they would do."  
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small notebook and began taking notes about the room.

I just sat back enjoying the soft seat as I glanced around the room. It was nicer here then it had been in the Hamasaki compound, but that may have been cause the Hamasaki weren't a clan known for it's frills. It was much nicer than mine and Benjiro's apartment. I hope it wasn't too messy when I got back. Benjiro was a great cook, but really sloppy when left alone. I did most the cleaning out of habit and the fact that I hated bugs in the house.

My stirrings were interrupted when there was a knock on the door.

* * *

The next morning after Ume argued with the Hozuki head about whether or not someone is listening to our conversations in our room we went to our first challenge. We were dropped deep underground into a white hallway. As the buzzer began I started running as I came to a dead end where a shinobi stood there.

"So,"  
I looked at him and gestured past him.

"Is this the end?"

"No, this is a door. It'll open if you answer my question."  
He said from his position.

"Okay, what is it?"  
I was curious.

"Who founded the village hidden in the cloud?"

He said it and I held up my shoulders.

"No idea."  
I said honestly.

"Wait what?"  
He looked at me honestly surprised.  
"What do you mean you don't know? Why would you come here without knowing something so basic?"

"History's not my strong point, and they didn't really go over that in my preparations."

Combat was only really covered by the Hamasaki. I didn't think they actually covered the founding of this village in history. I couldn't be sure though, it never seemed very important in class. The most important thing in our history class was just being still and quiet enough so the instructor didn't notice you and thus beat you. Didn't matter now though

"Well that puts you at an impasse, since I won't he…. What are you doing?"  
The man asked as I did the hand signs.

"Earth Release: Hands of Stone."

The skin of my hands went dull and hardened. I could see a seam on the far side of the blocking wall. If it was a door, it was a sliding door. I flattened both hands against the wall and shoved them into the crack quickly. They left indentations into the metal as I bore through it and found a solid plate. The metal around it wasn't very strong. I braced my feet against the ground and started prying the door open. It was slow going but it started to creak and inch back.

"Stop! You're going to break it."  
I paused and looked at the shinobi.

"Do you have any other idea? I failed to answer your question."  
I said it back to him.

"Or do I have to fight you?"

The shinobi hesitated for a moment, either because he wasn't prepared to fight or he had another reason not too.  
"You can't just break the course to get through!"

"Then how else am I gonna get through?"  
I shrugged my shoulders and started pulling again. After a few seconds there was a swish and the door opened on it's own. I saw it retreat to the other end of the wall before turning to see the shinobi.

"Just go, don't attack any other doors, it's really expensive to fix these."  
He said it with a hand on his face. I was surprised he didn't try to attack me to make me stop, but maybe he didn't think he could fight in here without causing more damage.

The next two shinobi asked questions, only one I could answer, not that they stopped me. The moment I moved towards the door of the one I couldn't answer it opened. I suppose they were more concerned about me damaging the doors then keeping me there.

After I got past the door three shinobi appeared and started to chase after me. Well they didn't have to chase far I suppose. I wasn't going to outrun them if they really tried to chase me, when it came to movement speed I was the slowest person in my class. I stopped and turned to face them as they came at me in triangle formation. When the first one got to me I tried to initiate a grab. They dodged it, but in such a small space they had trouble maneuvering so I managed to grab their leg. Picking up the man I spun and knocked him against the corridor wall. One of the other ones tried to grab at my arm. Oh they were going for the satchel. I dropped the first one and slammed my shoulder with the other shinobi into the other wall. The came at me from the front with a kunai and was making another slash at my satchel. I still had the hands of stone jutsu up so I grabbed the weapon on it's blade and crushed it in my fist before I used my other one to nail them in the pit of the stomach. They buckled under the blow. I paused for a moment to check on the three of them. They seemed to be breathing regularly, so I probably didn't hit anything vital so I stepped over the three unconscious shinobi slowly before walking down to the other corridor.

As soon as I entered the door closed and a large dark skinned man appeared from the gloom.  
"My name is Zei, and you the terror of the labyrinth. You know we're deducting time for you destroying the course and knocking out your pursuers."  
He looked me up and down.  
"Well congratulations on making it through anyway, you came in just under the limit."

I shrugged my shoulders. I suppose that was fine, as long as I passed.  
"So is this it?"

"Well yes, you don't have a great time though you can still go forward. However one of your teammates lost their satchel in the labyrinth. It'll deduct from your time and you might not make ranking, but if you want them to advance as well you can go retrieve it for them."

"Oh, okay, let me back in then."  
It wasn't really much of a choice there.

"You realize that you might not pass if you go back."  
The guy looked at me seriously.

"Nah, I'm okay, I can go back. My times not that great anyway, if I can help my friends that's fine."

The man smiled at me and shook his head.  
"You pass. Shinobi need to understand that sometimes they have to risk their own standings to complete the mission of a teammate. Proceed to the next room to await instruction for the next part of the exam."

The next room was noisy, I found the others pretty quickly. Kiriko was talking to some white haired boy. As I walked over another proctor appeared in a lab coat. She set down the forms and looking at everyone I jumped forward to get it as members of the other teams rushed the table. The dogpile that resulted wasn't really that hard, plus if I didn't do it Suigetsu might, and he would just get the paper wet.

"Got it!"  
I pushed myself out of the crowd back to everyone and looked at the paper real quickly. It took a moment to read, why the hell did they have to write everything in kanji.  
"What in the world is the Valley of Raijin?"

* * *

The moment we got back to our rooms Ume went straight to her room and came back out with a scroll.  
"Alright, time to go shopping."

The rest of us was resting.  
"We just got out of the exam."  
Suigetsu said it first.  
"Why do we need to go shopping?"

Ume rolled her eyes at him.  
"Because whatever we're facing it has to do with electricity, so we need to get some insulated gloves and boots."

The rest of us blinked at her. It wasn't like we didn't know what electricity was. Because the academy had no windows in some places they had electric lights (not the barracks, but the med bay did), but other than that we weren't that familiar with it. I knew you could use lightning based jutsu and electricity came from that, but not much past that.

"How do you figure?"  
I asked this time.

"The Valley of Raijin, Raijin is the god of lightning. Anyway, we need to get going soon."  
She grabbed Mitsuki who stood up and let out a yawn.

"What's the hurry?"  
Hiroshi asked from his position.

Mitsuki answered this time.  
"She's trying to avoid the adults."

"Yes, because we count in the least."  
Kansen choose that moment to step through the door. We had jokingly left them behind at Ume's insistence, by getting on the tram ahead of them.  
"You are well informed in your lore Ume-chan, but whatever you need we can get."

Ume's eye twitched at the use of the cutsey honorific only Kansen used. Actually I think Kansen's the only one who could get away with that or who would do it, well besides Kiriko. If anybody else called her that I'm pretty sure she'd knock them on their butts.

"Do you know our shoe and glove sizes Kansen?"

Her teacher thought of this for a few seconds.  
"I could only guess."

"Meaning you don't. We all need to go then, because otherwise it won't fit properly and fighting in baggy clothing is a massive pain."  
She'd be the expert in that. The supply office never had her size because she was so teensy, so she had to either tie off or wrap up her winter clothing to keep the chill out.

"But we both know Chigetsu would never let us go so."

"Better to ask forgiveness than permission."  
Minami piped in. Which was weird since she never asked for either.

I stood up and walked to the door. I had to hide my smile a little, at least from Kansen. We weren't supposed to go out into public without Chigetsu's permission. Even if we had a good reason we were still going behind his back in a minor way. It wasn't something I was supposed to be happy about, though Minami and Ume were more unabashed about it. Everyone else was joining in a line, the most hesitant of them being Hiroshi and Kansen, but they followed regardless.

There might be some repercussions but I guess it was okay to do this as long as we did it together.

* * *

We managed to avoid punishment because Kansen came with us which meant we were still supervised. Plus if we had waited for Chigetsu and his bodyguard to return we wouldn't have had time to buy anything because they returned late at night.

We speculated on what they could be doing, but there wasn't any way we could confirm that.

I woke up the next morning early when Minami was sent in to drag me out of bed (which she did literally with snare trap) then we set off for the second task.

We could see the storm clouds as we entered the walled off area and looked down into the valley. Scorched earth, the sound of thunder in the distance, the smell of burning, it was familiar it was.

 _The smell of coal and ash filled the air. The furnace door open, and the smell of burning flesh. But the strongest thing was the screaming. Her scream, and his, even though I couldn't see anything I knew what was happening and I could do nothing._

The memory filled me. How many years since this, the wall brought it back, the assessment, fighting with fire. It took me a few moments but I shook it away as there was a bang from a gun. We all dashed forward at this and I looked at the others for confirmation. Shit I didn't know what we were doing.

As we ran Hiroshi asked.

"What's the plan?"

"Strategy fourteen, I'll be vanguard, Gonmaru will be rear."

She responded as we headed downward.

I just nodded, I could do that. Guarding wasn't hard even though I wasn't sure what we were supposed to be doing yet. Strategy fourteen was standard procedure for Kiri ninja.

She continued talking about the towers and charging. I looked towards her at the battery. Oh, we were supposed to charge that with the tower. Okay. Thank kami I didn't have to ask. It was around then though we all turned back to what Hiroshi pointed out. We looked back at the massive brawl happening behind us.

"Damnit,"  
She cursed as she handed off the battery.  
"Go ahead with the strategy, it's built for three people anyway. I'm going back to help."

"What? But your our best fighter."  
I responded on instinct. But the look on her face told me this wasn't going to work.

"I'm the fastest fighter, but you have better stamina and defense which is ideal for guarding. Look if the other team gets knocked out Hozuki-sama is going to be pissed."

It's also idea for not getting knocked out in a brawl, which is where she was going. She turned away from us taking a step forward so we couldn't grab her.

"Go, while we have the lead! I promise I'll stay in long enough for you to finish, just get the job done."  
And then she was gone, because none of us could catch her regardless we kept going.

As we went Hiroshi let out a curse and I nodded the sentiment.  
"Why does she always…"

"Because she's Ume."  
Stubborn, rash, fast, and finicky. That was Ume, that had always been Ume. I said it with a sigh and Kiriko nodded.

"She hasn't changed at all. She'll run full force towards the trouble before she ever considers letting us do it for her."  
Kiriko was more resigned to this than angry.

"Hopefully she won't get us disqualified. She was right, if we go down Hozuki Chigetsu will not let this sit. Nor will the seven families."  
Hiroshi replied to us. We really didn't look at him when he did though. We knew what was at stake. Not getting to the final round was the same as a mission failure, and this was a big mission. We had no idea what would happen if we had to go home early, but we were not eager to find out.

Either the rest of the teams were too preoccupied with the brawl or they were more occupied with their own objective but we had no problem getting to the tower. We found when we got there there was already a thick plume of mist on the second tower which meant Minami and Mitsuki had gotten their first. Which meant they had ample time for set up. I pitied anybody who wandered into a mist Minami had time to prepare.

As we got to the tower Hiroshi all three of us used the Hidden Mist Jutsu. It wasn't my best jutsu but working together we made a sizable mist and only one of us needed to work to keep it up. According to Hiroshi the frequent storms made the area very moist. We then set up a perimeter of about five meters around the tower, partially for breathing space, and partially because that was the furthest distance Kiriko could keep her circular genjutsu. While we did that Hiroshi and I took turns up keeping the mist and checking on the battery. We didn't talk much, just focused on the task, anybody could be coming through the mist and attack us. Anybody could just appear.

Someone did, but they were accompanied by Ume who discreetly gave us from the other side of the pane the hand sign for temporary alliance. She stopped them two meters from the barrier and managed to talk them into waiting. Kiriko was hiding myself and her, I wasn't sure if the other team noticed our absence but they certainly didn't know we were there as they chatted amongst themselves as Ume moved through the barrier and walked to the tower to help Hiroshi set their battery with them.

"So should we jump her when she finishes charging?"  
This was the bigger of the Konoha team spoke.

"Is that really wise?"  
The white haired boy asked, what was his name again.  
"Sumire-san is cooperating with us."

"So? We're shinobi, we'll just wait until she's done with the battery and then take both of them."  
He said it. The other two members of the Konoha team looked a little more nervous.

"I'm not sure, did you see how fast she moved, she might actually kill one of us if we try."  
This was the other boy.

"A shrimp like her?"  
He looked at them.  
"We can take her."

"Yes, we probably could. But what of her teammates. Don't you notice their is only one there."  
This was the white haired boy.  
"The others are likely hiding in the mist. You don't fight mist ninja in the mist, that's like fighting us in the trees."

The larger boy seemed to think this over, I tightened the grip on my sign but kept up the jutsu. I couldn't speak and blow our cover. But I stared at him. He seemed so eager to fight, so eager to hurt. Exactly like that person was. I felt myself shake but I let out a breath. No, we weren't going to fight. We needed to get through this trial, if we fought we'd probably get knocked out and tha….

The sound nearly made us stumble, it definitely made Kiriko lose concentration as the genjutsu dropped and she turned face. The smell hit me first, the burning the flashes of that night but I shook it away, I didn't smell burning flesh, that was a distinct smell so they probably weren't directly hit, I hope. I was more concerned about the other team as they stared at me and the distance they were before they stared at the tower. I did not take my eyes off of them as I moved towards the others, not until I got a good look at the scene.

The mist was still thick but since no one was maintaining it it was starting to thin a little in our area and in the distance I saw where Kiriko ran two figures pulling themselves up. Ume dusted herself off as Kiriko immediately grabbed her. I walked over to Hiroshi and grabbed him on the shoulder. I said quickly.

"Okay?"

"Fine, I need to breath."  
He replied before looking at the tower and wincing. I followed his gaze and winced too. The batteries were gone, and they were lucky to also not be gone.

"This is a problem, and…"  
He petered out and glanced at the rest of us.

"Whatever it is, it's a problem for later."  
I said as I started walking towards the other. Ume was speaking to the Konoha group. Hiroshi was breathing heavy, Kiriko was shaking, I was still wincing at the thought of what almost happened. Ume though, she was calm, or at least that's what it looked like under her mask. She was technically breaking what we were supposed to be as characters by taking the lead but the rest of us were too shaken to really call her out on it. It was the easiest thing to do, the simplest thing to do. Though what she asked us to do next was anything but.

We took the long way around the other teams mists. We had the lead because the other team couldn't tell how to stay in cover around the edge while still being in far enough to not be seen. While Ume and Hiroshi spoke in private Kiriko and I dealt with the other team.

"Why aren't we going to the other tower?"  
This was the girl on the other team asked. She was cute, but was growing impatient pretty quickly.

"We have no way to communicate with our other team our intentions. If several figures appeared from the fog, they'd just attack us."  
Kiriko responded quickly. What she neglected to say was that if we even moved remotely close to the tower we'd likely trip over whatever traps Minami had set up.

"That seems really inefficient. I thought you Kiri nin were masters of the mist."  
This was the white haired boy.

"It's not like you can tell when other Konoha nin are behind trees. Give us a break, we're genin remember and they didn't give us radios."  
I replied with a stretch. It was a lesson from the Hamasaki. Appear casual, informal, don't look like your ready to fight. People overlook whoever looks most relaxed.

"We actually have entire clans dedicated to just that."  
Kabuto interjected.

"Uh huh, are they here?"  
I replied and that silenced the rest of them. We were all drilled on the two famous Konoha clans to look out for at the exam, the Hyuuga and the Uchiha. Luckily both were distinctive, and it was clear no one here was from any of them.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Just calm down, we know what we're doing."

They should understand that, but the girl replied again.  
"Is such a thing even capable? What your suggesting isn't something a normal genin would be capable of?"

"Really?"  
I looked at her a little surprised.  
"Don't they teach you bushin at the academy?"

"Well yes, they do but, to do that much, how do we know it'll work."  
She said again.

"Because people are gullible."  
Kiriko answered this time.  
"That's the first lesson of genjutsu. If you don't give people a reason to doubt what they see, they don't. Their information is just as limited as ours is, and this far into the trial if they have gotten this far without trouble if they are not either incredibly confident and/or incredibly dim they will be expecting complication. That's the second lesson of genjutsu, you play towards people expectations, even if they are unrealistic people are more likely to accept something they expect to happen good or bad."

Her voice was more firm as she said this, and a little annoyed.

"People aren't that gullible."  
This was one of the bigger boys.

"Either they are, or your team is part of a very gullible minority. I thought you'd appreciate an out to the counter."  
I turned my head away so they couldn't see my smile. But I think they heard the light chuckle as we got to the mist edge and Ume ended whatever conversation she was having with Hiroshi.

"Get ready."  
The bigger boy looked at Ume then Kiriko and let out a sigh as he picked her up. Hiroshi used an earth jutsu to make the dust roll down the hill and kept his concentration as the rest of us watched. We were only letting him doing it as a concession to them. Otherwise I would have done it. Instead I had to watch as the giant horde Kiriko summoned appeared and they ran down to the other tower. This was a double hostage situation mostly. We were outnumbered they were outnumbered so if either side tried to betray the other we could simply knock one of our opponents out which would knock us out of the contest. We were also to provide backup if the plan didn't work.

We watched before the white haired boy spoke again.  
"Do you always do such outrageous stunts?"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about."  
I replied.  
"It's basic tactics."

"But they can't possibly think that…"  
I pointed out as they got down the thing and the people at the tower started fleeing.

"You were saying. For our supposed allies, you guys have surprisingly little faith in us."  
I stretched a little bit.

"We don't know anything about you."  
The girl said this time.

"Well that's true. My name is Gonmaru, my sign is Leo, my favorite food is udon and red bean rolls, my favorite pastime is playing the drums and clea…."

"That's not what I meant."  
The girl looked away crossing her arms.

I shrugged my shoulders.  
"Just trying to be nice. I mean, we're all in the same situation aren't we. So why not be nice, we aren't fighting each other."

"Right now."  
The girl huffed out.

"Exactly, even if we fight in the last round, it's just a contest."  
I stretched out.  
"So why can't we be friends."

"I know from experience boys don't ever just want to be friends."  
She sniped back.

I held a hand over my heart.  
"You wound me."  
I turned to look down.  
"I would never do such untoward things or advance on the unwilling but I will protect the precious princesses from any such hazards on my honor as a man."

"There is no honor among shinobi."  
One of the other boys spoke up.

"Speak for yourself leafs, and looks like it's time to run."  
I replied looking over at Hiroshi. He was silent, mostly just watching them as they made it up the hill and we joined them in stride. We headed up from the valley, passed the wall and passed the round.

* * *

When we got back to our rooms Hiroshi followed Ume back to her room. The others hadn't gotten back yet me and Kiriko waited in our rooms.  
"So is something up with those two?"  
I leaned back against the couch. Kiriko was exhausted but just made a hand gestured for the room. I put my hands together and did the seals Kiriko's sensei taught me and made the tight little air bubble. I wasn't good at air jutsu, but it was a pretty simple one so I could maintain it for a little while. It was something at least, I didn't feel that useful in the last test.

"I think Ume said something to upset him while they were at the tower."  
Kiriko leaned her head against the back of the bottom bunk tiredly.  
"He was unusually quiet when Kansen-sensei tried to debrief us. He usually is he most talkative to our sensei because they're from the same family."

"What do you think she could have said?"  
I asked a little curious now.

Kiriko shook her head.  
"It's hard to say."  
She let out a breath.  
"It may not seem like it, but Hiroshi is actually incredibly sensitive. He takes what other people say very seriously, and really hates surprises."

"You mean like when we tried to visit him for his birthday?"

I asked again. Ume had convinced us to try and surprise him for his birthday by all showing up at the training ground with some small gifts. Though maybe letting Minami introduce us with firecrackers and streamers wasn't the course of action since he nearly ran away.

"More then that. I think it has to do with how he was raised. He's used to having the most information at any given time, he actually works really hard to research any and all possibilities and outcomes for battle. It's why he excels at strategy."

Here eyes were flickering as she lay there.

"But sucks at improvisation."

I pointed out.

"He's getting better at that. But the fact that he might have missed something or someone hasn't told him something, it always upsets him. It's why he usually takes Ume's cue when something surprises him, she's pretty adaptive. So it could literally be anything. If you're really that curious you can ask him."  
She was dozing now her voice tired as she leaned over onto the side of the couch. I let the jutsu dropped as it was clear she was fast asleep. I leaned her over gently and grabbed one of the blankets letting her lay down.

Not long afterwards Hiroshi entered and I put a finger to my lips. He walked over and checked her before motioning to move her. We didn't have to worry about waking her by moving her, I suppose she really was drained off the high of using two soldier pills. Thank god we weren't going to have to fight for two weeks because she'd be dead in the water at a fight.

When we got her to her room Ume was also dozing. She had taken off her disguise and was sleeping on the bottom most bed. We put Kiriko on the middle one before heading back to our room and sitting down. I wasn't really tired, but Hiroshi was. More mentally it seemed then physically. I probably shouldn't bring it up but I was so curious. So I put up the bubble jutsu again.  
"What were you and Ume talking about?"

Hiroshi looked at me a bit more at attention. He seemed to think about it for a moment before letting out a sigh.  
"He thinks the white haired boy from the Konoha team is here to gather information on us."

"Okay."  
That wasn't too strange. This was a display wasn't it. Everyone was gathering information on everyone else. Especially before the finals.

"Is that why you're upset?"

"I'm not…."  
He let out a sigh, before putting a hand on his face. He was pretty good at hiding his emotions, but he was also tired. It's hard to be strong and stoic after a long day. I didn't push, I just sat there on the couch with him for a few minutes before he spoke again.  
"She said that if we failed this exam, that you guys would be used as scapegoats for any party who had objected to the mission, while Suigetsu and I would be protected. I just…"  
He let out another sigh before continuing.

"I thought for once we were on equal ground this time."

I tried not to make a face. Hiroshi was incredibly awkward around most of us, he tried to be friendly but he had a hard time talking to us when Ume or Kiriko wasn't there, we just thought it was because of the way he acted at the academy but was he really just guilty that he had privilege over us. That was so, strange. I really didn't know how to react to that. It didn't fit, it didn't fit at all. While I knew some members of the seven families were neutral as opposed to hostile or snoddy, Suigetsu was certainly neutral, I never thought any of them would actually feel bad about it. That was just the way things were, that was the way they had always been. It's not like it would change, they were too big.

I was just quiet for a moment as I tried to think about what to say. Should I say anything? They didn't cover this in combat training.  
"Um,"  
I didn't think anything I was thinking would help.  
"Well, I,"  
I rubbed my nose a little.  
"I know."  
I looked down.  
"It's, it's nothing new. They, they can do whatever they want. But if we don't fail, they shouldn't do anything to us."  
Shouldn't was the key word, not can't.

He looked at me but didn't say anything immediately but he continued.

"Everyone is so angry. At everything. Something bad is going to happen. That anger has to go somewhere."

"I know."

I said it again. The flashes of that night returning to my head. Of the anger, and the Akebino. He was so angry, he killed my father, then he killed my mother and there wasn't anything I could do about it, all I could do was run. It was terrifying, and hopeless. I'm not sure what my face showed but my hand clenched at the thought. Hiroshi didn't see it though. We both just sat there in silence for a while we were called again.

* * *

This is like the longest thing I have yet to right for this site. No joke. Part two is coming, it's Kansen's perspective.


	6. Kansen

Kansen

Chunin Exams Part II

Hiroshi's progress with the summoning jutsu was going well. He dove straight into the task of learning the jutsu then immediately started to develop a rapport with his summons. Owls were prideful creatures and he did well not to offend them. In fact, he met and talked to five separate summons who agreed to work with him. That was key with working with summoned creatures. Just because you signed a contract didn't mean the creatures you summoned would work with you. In fact, there were cases where summon animals would break a contract if enough of the summons came to dislike them.

His work with the freezing jutsu was also impressive. It wasn't quite Ice Release, only the Yuki could do true ice release, but the act of freezing water by removing the heat was possible as a high grade water release. Though the practices did leave him quite tired, so much so that I had to actually carry him back to his room after our training sessions. While that wasn't an action I was unfamiliar with since my daughter often fell asleep in strange places, the physical contact required would have been taboo on the Kishi compound.

Though I supposed I wasn't unfamiliar with being taboo either.

Gonmaru, Hiroshi's current roommate and teammate, opened the door. I hadn't worked with him personally, as Gonbee had taken up his training while I assisted Hiroshi. On paper, Gonbee didn't have as much expertise in Gonmaru's especiality of taijutsu as I did, he had graduated the academy as a part of support company. However, he was one of the few who graduated during the bloody mist graduations and went onto one of the teams that were renowned for their high success rate and combat prowess. He wasn't a taijutsu specialist, but until the death of their third member in the last war that team was greatly feared.

And despite being a jonin from Kirigakure, the genin liked him.

My team of genin didn't like me, but then I wasn't here for them to like me. I was here to protect them, though one particular genin made it harder than the others.

Which was why after I dropped off Hiroshi I prepared for my night.

When I returned to my room and started getting ready Gonbee was waiting there. Gonbee was drinking something from a can, there were a few machines that vended them across that took coins.

"Getting ready to watch your student again?"

"I may need to sleep a bit before that, could you wake me when she moves?" I responded.

"I'm not going to bed anytime soon. Hozuki-sama wants me to do the reports, again." He said a little dully.

"I assume he has gone out again." I responded as I headed into the kitchen.

"Doing research, according to him." Gonbee confirmed as he picked up the pile of papers on the table in front of him.

"The swordsman?" I asked.

"Yet to return." Gonbee answered. "He finished his training about two hours ago with Chojuro-san, Ume-san and Suigetsu-san, and then disappeared. Again."

"Everyone else accounted for?" I asked again.

"For now. Do you think you should talk to her about that?" He added.

"And what, exactly? Forbid her?" I replied and Gonbee nodded.

It wasn't a secret that one out of my three charges wasn't fond of me. She appeared agreeable in front of anybody important, but made no effort to hide her feelings otherwise. It was fortunate that she was made to wear a mask for any public appearance she held while she was here, because otherwise her feelings would be an open book to our enemies.

She had a rebellious streak that seemed to have come to her five years earlier than her peers. She only followed direct orders to the letter but would intentionally ignore the spirit and she ignored convention whenever possible simply to be contrary. The mask she wore as the proper stoic swordswoman was so opposite to her less controlled form that it was interesting to watch in public, but I knew better than anyone keeping up such a façade was exhausting. So I allowed this small act of rebellion, less because I liked it and more because I had a little girl as well. It's better to allow a child to think they've gotten away with something harmless than it is to punish them and push them to become better at hiding more harmful activities.

Around the normal time I waited across the way, watching for her to leave the room. As usual, she left without her disguise in a fine but plain kimono. I followed until she got on the train and then waited until the next car came, watching her as she got off. Then I summoned a rabbit. Tsukimono appeared, a solid black rabbit who was the length of my forearm appeared

"Oh, Sen-san, watching the chibi-usa again?"

I had signed the contract with my true name, so the rabbits called me various versions of that. Though they did like to use nicknames, it was safer just not to summon them in the company of others. Nevermind that rabbits were considered to be bad omens by a lot of people.

"Yes, give me a full report when you are done. I will have payment available."

Tsukimono nodded before heading off to watch. He wouldn't be caught. He was a specialist on infiltration and information gathering. He had reported a predator (cat) and their master whom contained an ancient one (demon container) had been visiting. But there was no negative interactions or suggestion that Ume was betraying the village. It was reported that she was using an alias and claiming to be a civilian, which was fortunate.

With that confirmed, I headed back to my room. I could rest for now, as I would be alerted.

* * *

The three day rest period after the training was used for strategizing. Though it was superfluous after the first day, but Hozuki-sama insisted on it. The fact that a member of my team called him out on that didn't help things. When the session on the second day concluded I had to report directly to him afterwards.

"You should keep your genin in line, Kishi." Hozuki-sama didn't mince words.

"Yes, Hozuki-sama." I replied in a neutral tone.

"She should show more respect to her superiors."

He turned his back to me as he said it. His voice was the same neutral tone. You weren't supposed to show emotions, that was a weakness for shinobi.

"Yes, Hozuki-sama." I replied again.

"The Sumire just had to enter a wild hare. That tiny family just had to push things." His tone was still neutral.

The Sumire were in no way a tiny family, but they did have the least formal members of the all the seven families. Counting informal members however, they outnumbered the other families by a lot.

"Every family has their own reasons for their choices."

That was a fairly neutral answer. I could think of several reasons why the Sumire would choose Ume, though I couldn't dismiss them doing so to prod Hozuki Chigetsu's sensibilities. He was voted by the council of seven to be representative, but he only slightly outpaced both the head of the Mizushima and the head of the Sumire family for that position, who each got two votes to his three. I of course wasn't supposed to know that, but my wife's brother was the stenographer for that meeting.

"I read the progress reports, but what is your personal opinion on how the matches would go?"

He changed the subject, well, he may have simply been venting. Few people would ever disrespect Hozuki-sama, even his own sons, so he may have simply been surprised by it.

"Since both teams made it through the first two rounds, we have the second largest presence in the third exam. That means statistically one of ours has the greatest chance of winning the exam."

He made a sound before turning towards me.

"I asked for your opinion."

You don't want the real one.

"We have several highly adaptable and talented genin."

"That doesn't mean they'll win." He said again, some irritation edging his voice.

"We have done all we can, the only thing we can do is rely on them. I am certain their showing will be admirable." I responded this time.

"Admirable isn't enough." He huffed out as he went to the door. I watched him go but didn't relax my stance until I was certain he wasn't going to re-enter.

Looking down at my sheets, I went over the combinations in my head. In numbers we had the advantage, but otherwise we did not. Team battles were the strength of the genin here, they were trained to specialize and to compensate for a teammate's weakness, so much so that one on one battles were not a heavy focus, or strength. Whether they could overcome this depended heavily both on the quality of their opponents and their ability to surprise the competition. That was a mark in our favor, no one in this world had seen a true Kiri nin in a decade.

The fact that they were from common stalk as opposed to family nin made a difference as well. The main difference was that there was no coasting on the techniques and favor of the family they were from. While the three military families didn't do this, the four non military families were known to push through lesser shinobi of their names through the home exams. These children actually had a better chance of promotion here than they would have in their own country, which was rather sad but not something that was likely to change any time soon. It was a blessing the two actual blood members of the seven families were competent, Hiroshi being one the best ninjutsu users to come from the Kishi in years and Suigetsu, though considered lesser to his brother, was still a powerful force with and without his sword.

Not that it mattered if either of them got a bad combination.

The specialized training of the academy created obvious weaknesses for anybody in an alternate course. Not many people knew this was intentional in case of defection so one could send someone with an obvious strength against the defector to kill them, but it also created this situation. Suigetsu's weakness was not one trained in, but one inherent to his family line, it was just bad luck that he had been sent to the Land of Lightning.

Sighing, I put down the papers. This was nothing new, but there was nothing to talk about anymore, all we could do was wait and see.

* * *

There is a program on the black box that shows footage of previous chunin exams, usually those in Kirigakure of the students' battles and triumphs. I'm surprised they have such a thing on record, but showing such a thing likely has no outcome. It had been several years since Kumo hosted a chunin exam. This information was exceptionally outdated, so not functionally useful for the current chunin exam.

There was a knock on the far door facing the adjacent room. We generally moved through each others' rooms instead of going on the outside. Grabbing the small black box that controls the larger one, I click the button that turns it off before rising. When I open the door and am greeted by one of my students, two brown eyes look up towards mine.

"Kansen-sensei, can we speak for a few minutes?" Her tone polite, her posture and expression earnest.

"Yes, come in Kiriko-san."

I sit down on a chair and Kiriko waits for me to sit before taking a seat on the couch. Basic hierarchy etiquette training.

She reaches into her small medical pouch and pulls out a scroll, which she lays on the table and it pops out. There were two sandwiches on the table.

"Sandwiches? Did you buy these?"

"No, we made them. We didn't know if you had eaten yet, so I thought..." She looked down, a little nervous.

I smiled at her and picked up one of them. They were cut into neat triangles.

"They look delicious, thank you Kiriko-san. Did you just wish to have dinner with me?"

She nods before reaching down and grabbing one of her triangles and starting to quickly eat it. The orphans always ate more quickly than those from the seven families, though she is more subdued and clean about it than her companions. The sandwiches quickly disappear, and the crust as well. She then wipes her hand on a napkin that was set on the plate as I do the same. They were tasty, it wasn't a combination I had had before, sweet but nutty. It is while I am eating that she speaks again.

"So, Kansen-sensei, the combat is going to be one on one, I'm…" She trails off not finishing her thought, hands fidgeting.

"You have done your training for the last two weeks?"

It is a question, I wasn't in charge of her training because she was genjutsu specialized and it was not something I was adept at.

"Some, I was mostly sent to speak and learn what I could about the others." She was looking down, her hands in her lap.

Ah, Kiriko had been pushed into a diplomacy position to gather information at the expense of her own training time. I thought the others had been handling her training, but if pressure had been applied by Hozuki Chigetsu it couldn't have been helped, especially since she wouldn't have spoken out against such a thing even though she was now panicking about it. She was a kind and timid girl. Pretty, delicate, considerate, earnest and almost certainly one of many bastard children left behind by the conquest of a wayward Aozora at the orphanages. Not usually something discussed publically among the houses, but a common enough occurrence of what is considered the clan who values beauty over all else. Such children are usually bound to the geisha houses, her presence here shows an unusual amount of talent, not that she recognizes these things. She has classic support company temperament, linking her confidence to her role as support and not in her ability to directly handle challenges on her own. It was the weakness enforced by the training of support company, after all, why would you rebel if you only thought yourself useful in a group setting?

"You are concerned about engaging in direct combat."

Folding my hands, I look past the doors. Reaching down, I grab the small box again and turn it on.

"These are past battles. Not useful for present, but let's go through some combat scenarios."

"Would you? I mean..." She nods as she turns towards the box.

"Of course, I am not genjutsu standard, but to be fair lots of people aren't. Genjutsu is the least performed of the fields and thus people are less likely to expect it. I am sure we can work around what you have available. Especially in terms of bunshin."

She nods as she turns to the television and we discuss various stratagems. Whatever else support company did, it didn't quell her ability to think strategically nor hamper her earnestness.

* * *

The first day of fights ended with only two of our eight entrants being knocked out of the exams. Considering the roster, that was quite a feat in of itself. The large number of genin who made it to the preliminaries of the final round was likely the reason for the addition of a time limit and dual matches to keep the schedule to pace with the rest of the exams. In truth they could have done the matches more efficiently over the last two weeks, but Kumo thrived on showcasing its wares during such events. I picked up from some of the older crowd that they did yearly shows for any new innovation that all villages were welcome to attend and that there was always fierce competition in the village to win these shows. It didn't surprise me at all that the village showcased their wealth and advancement in such a fashion, though it did also highlight the lack of progress in my own home.

There were many given reasons for the closing of the borders in the Land of Water, with the original one being to give the Land of Water time to recenter itself after the last shinobi war. Many people thought it was only a temporary measure at the time. I had certainly hoped that to be the case, because as beautiful as the country could be, there was something incredibly limiting about being confined to the borders of one's home by force. Though it did not truly become a desperate situation until the genocides began.

Little warning was given for it, almost certainly, it was kept quiet at first, a slow progression as more and more members of bloodlines began to disappear, but it came quickly to the forefront when the Kaguya started doing their raids. A heavily militant and incredibly combat capable clan like the Kaguya turning to raiding and killing other villages for resources created the type of fear and distrust that had been compounding over the years since the closure of the borders shifted public opinion drastically enough that the seven families no longer had to hide what they were doing. It wasn't long after that when the civilians rallied with them, pointing out any who sought to hide among them as bloodline limit users or relatives of bloodline users, or in some cases overpowering and killing them themselves. This is what happened to most second or third generation members who, while having no shinobi training themselves, were unfortunate enough to show signs of those skills or physical features associated with those particular families.

It was these circumstances which convinced me and my wife that the world wasn't safe for our little girl. Though every time I see her interact with others it hurts me to know the way we made her different.

After the matches concluded, we immediately headed back to our rooms. The genin were left to their own devices while we met Chigetsu for a strategy meeting.

As we sat at the table, Chigetsu walked into the room, closing and locking the door behind him, his bodyguard nowhere to be seen. He looked at us before using the gesture for private conversation. Gonbee created the bubble to surround us and then he spoke.

"Today we had some losses, but overall the showing was good. This creates an opportunity."

To punctuate this he tossed the betting booklet onto the table. I looked at the pamphlet, a little surprised. Were they already giving these out? Presses take hours to make even small works, did they have something faster? They must, because there were notes about the previous rounds and new betting statistics already available.

"You're going to be betting? Isn't that in poor taste?"

Gonbee asked while I picked up the book and started scanning the numbers. Most of our students had middle ground odds, though Minami was set at ten to one against a local genin named Buruto, he was probably a local favorite.

"Usually yes, but such guidelines need not be followed away from prying eyes." He responded sharply.

Basically, don't tell anyone or I'll have you killed. Gambling was considered a commoners' sport and as such below members of the seven families. That didn't mean that they didn't do it, just that they pretended they didn't so they could turn their noses up at other people about it.

"Most of the matches wouldn't give a high tithe unless you put up a substantial sum." I replied, looking at the booklet.

"Yes, which is why I will only be doing so on matches with a guarantee."

Both myself and Gonbee looked up at this, staring at him intently. It was common knowledge that rigging matches at a chunin exam was grounds for our genin to be thrown out if caught, but seeing the look on his face I knew there wasn't going to be arguing with him on this. Gonbee opened his mouth to do so, but I held up a hand and cut him off before he could speak.

"We'll need to discuss this with them thoroughly so they understand."

Before turning to look at Gonbee. While we could get in trouble for doing this, it was clear we would get in trouble for going against Hozuki. While rigging was punished with expulsion, going against a Hozuki was punished with death or worse. He knew that, I knew that, and I needed my students to know that. Though I wasn't sure how they would take it.

* * *

Hiroshi took the news poorly. In fact, more than poorly, but he didn't show that in front of Hozuki because I bodily removed him from the room before he could continue speaking. Surprisingly, Ume didn't immediately jump on the subject, instead she looked more resigned to the fact, only pausing to ask Gonbee if he could help her with something while she made her way back to her room. It was a more mature response than I expected and a bit of a relief as I took Hiroshi aside to his own room.

The moment we were alone he dropped the neutral mask all Kishi are trained to wear among outsiders and I immediately had to put up a sound bubble before he burst out.

"This isn't fair!"

"Those are your orders." I responded quietly as I sat on the couch.

"So?! This is a competition, we're supposed to show our best. How can we do that if the match is already decided before it begins?!"

He started pacing, a private habit of his that I noticed when we were training. He usually did it when he was perplexed by something.

I let out a sigh. He was a prideful boy, like most heirs, but in a unique way. He seemed adamant on truly wanting to earn his place in this world among shinobi. I saw it in his training and his attitude, especially towards his teammates who were as much as his rivals as they were his companions. But unfortunately the world didn't work like that, be it material advantage or natural talent the truly great are usually only so because fortune smiled on their birth and there was no changing that.

"Hiroshi-san, you can't go against your orders."

He didn't respond immediately, but his fists were shaking.

"Orders, some order, it's basically subverting the purpose of the exams. This is supposed to be a trial, a test, not a play with the ending already planned out, and Ume is…"

He trailed off, his face dropping.

"Ume! Oh kami, she must hate me!"

With that, he started sprinting towards the door. I didn't stop him as he went outside and then jumped to the other side of the railing before jumping down to the lower level. I could make most of that out before the door closed. Instead, I waited about a minute before summoning Tsukimono. The rabbit appeared and rubbed his nose.

"The chibi-usa again?" He asked.

"No, Hiroshi-san. Follow him, make sure he doesn't do anything foolish until he returns."

Sitting back, I let out a sigh before returning to my room.

* * *

There was a knock on my door a few hours later. Gonbee had gone out into the festival for a drink. I was tempted to do the same but decided against it.

When I opened the door I was met by my shortest and most stubborn student. She had a plate in her hand. The smell hit me immediately as two hot red and white triangles sat on the table.

"What's this?" I enquired.

"A new recipe, we just cooked it. It came out pretty well, I think, but it's always good to have a second opinion."

She walked in without much ceremony and sat herself on the couch. That was a breach in etiquette, but I let it slide for tonight. After setting the plate down on the table, she reached down and picked up the one closer to her. A moment later, she blew on it to push away the heat before biting the edge of the triangle and chewing slowly.

I sat down as well, she slid for a moment and bumped into me before sliding back over to give herself some room.

"You know, Kiriko came last night with the same. Is it unfair to assume you want some advice?"

I said as I eyed the flat triangle. It was quite a strange thing to look at. Reaching down, I picked it up and the red sauce started to slide off. I reached over with a thumb and grabbed it. What was this made of? Not a plant from Kirigakure for certain. I reached over and tasted it off my thumb. Huh, it's spiced, almost certainly, a crisp and fresh flavor. I looked down at the bread holding the sauce and brought it to my mouth for a bite.

I chewed it for a few moments, it was chewy, the cheese mixes well with the sauce. Unusual but not unpleasant. Could use more spices, certainly.

She finished chewing and used her fist to wipe some sauce off her mouth before responding.

"Actually, I'd like to do some training with wind jutsu."

"Oh, you've never asked for jutsu training before, why the sudden change of heart Ume-chan?"

I saw a little twitch in her expression as I said the last part. I was well aware that it annoyed her, but she needed to work on concealing her emotions better. If such a small jab unsettled her she would never be able to stand much harsher words.

"Well, I need to show them what I got, right? And I have wind jutsu. Though it's a bit limited right now, and I know you use wind jutsu."  
She said before taking another bite. Then spoke again, this time with food in her mouth. Kami, her manners were atrocious.

"Huhw's it tahste."

"It tastes pretty good."

Though a bit bland for my taste. Still not really too relevant to this conversation. I only knew three wind jutsu, one being the academy basic and the other two just larger forms of the first. It was one of my opposite natures, so learning that much had been difficult on its own, but still useful for various reasons.

"I'll certainly help if I can, have you ever considered using your weapon as a focal point for your jutsu?"

She looked at me for a moment and swallowed.

"You can do that with swords?"

"You can do it with any weapon made of a chakra conductive material. It isn't limited to chakra flow. Most normal jutsu can be channeled through such weapons and released, in the case of wind jutsu it creates a more concentrated burst than the standard jutsu, as it is following the weapon's path. The Suna nin Kiriko fought used a similar technique."

"Yeah, I saw that."

She finished off her triangle with another large bite before wiping her face again, this time with her sleeve. It's a good thing those clothes didn't stain easily.

"Could you do it with cloth?"

I thought about it for a few moments before speaking.

"If it's a high percentage of chakra conductive cloth it could in theory work, but it would require that you harden the clothing into a specific shape while you do it, otherwise it would simply flow about everywhere."

"Alright." She got up. "So let's head to one of the training grounds then. I'll be right back, I need to get my sword."

She left the room in a hurry, not waiting for confirmation. Also a breach in etiquette, though I doubted it was intentional. As disrespectful as she could be, I'd almost never seen her go out of her way to be infuriating. No, she was quite a natural at doing that on her own. It had taken all I had not to yell at her during the C-Rank mission when she butted heads with Mizushima Hei, never mind her blatant disregard for the rules, but that time had appeared to be pure ignorance. I could imagine that. The academy had undergone many changes when the practices of the bloody mist were dispersed. It had to, of course, because when the war came to an end it became increasingly clear that such methods, even though they in theory weeded out those who might not be considered fit for shinobi life, it also meant our workforce had dropped well below that of other countries who used gentler methods. Momochi Zabuza's act of wiping out an entire class being a firm confirmation that things needed to change.

Not that there was any hope of going back now, they needed the numbers to fill their ranks out with the absences of the seven blood limits of Kirigakure.

* * *

We worked through the night on wind jutsu, going through its properties, its advantages and disadvantages. Despite evidence to the contrary based on academy notes, Ume was in fact quite adept at picking up and mimicking new techniques. It was doubtless that if she had been a bit older and had more developed reserves when she entered the academy, she would have likely been put into one of the ninjutsu or genjutsu courses. The fact that she was put into the kenjutsu course was probably because of her aggressive style and tactics, and also because in taijutsu, because of her small stature, she would be at a disadvantage due to her reach.

It was closer to morning when we finally came to a halt. We sat in the training room to cool down before heading back to our assigned quarters. She was near breathless, her endurance fading. It was no wonder, with her lower reserves, that she was so winded, but she never the less persisted until she could perform the jutsu to an adequate level. It was a respectable amount of determination on her part.

"You did quite well, Ume-chan. Perhaps we can go over more jutsu after we return to Kirigakure."

She sat down with her cantine, which she drank from thirstily under her mask. She sought to wear it in training, saying she needed to get better used to fighting in it. Though it did not hide her sweating or flushed cheeks, clear signs that she had spent her passive and active chakra.

"Maybe, though are you even allowed to do that?"

"Pardon?" I responded.

"Are you allowed to like, really train me like that?" She let out a breath. "I mean, you're more there to train Hiroshi, right? That's why the Kishi assigned you to us."

"What makes you think I was assigned to you?"

"Seriously?"

The phrase was one she spoke frequently as she turned towards me, grey eyes looming over me trying to find some surprise or misstep in my own mask. I suppose it was a good thing she was trying, not that she would. I had a decade of practice.

"You can't believe for a second any of us think this was chance? We aren't stupid."

"Nor are you wise." I replied. She rolled her eyes at me before taking another drink. "Regardless of why you think I'm here, that doesn't mean I don't have time to train my students. You simply never asked."

"Eh, honestly, it kind of didn't occur to me." She admitted as she drank again. "I guess partially because I really don't know you."

"Of course you do, I've been your sensei for six months now." I replied.

"Sure, and I know the mask you put on when you're our sensei." She touched her own mask when she said that. "But that isn't you."

"If you don't know me, how would you know that?" I replied.

"Because you're an adult." She let out a sigh. "And that's what you have to be when we're around. You're never just Kansen, never just hanging around or goofing off. You don't talk about your wants, or your likes, or your dreams. Instead you're just Kansen-sensei. In fact, even now you aren't showing any emotion, are you? 'Cause this is a mission, so you can't, or really won't, let something like that slip." She pulled up a knee and wrapped her arm around it. "Because that would mean revealing weakness or some other bullshit shinobi saying."

"Shinobi practices aren't bullshit. There is a reason for masks and to not show emotion to the enemy." I replied, looking down at her and keeping my face schooled as I did. It had taken some effort for my eyebrows not to raise as she spoke on the matter, partially because it was true that it was something adults did. But also truer for me, because Kansen as a whole was just another mask. "Your emotions, your quirks, your limitations, your flaws are all information that can be used against you. Masks are a protection against that."

"Yeah, but they're also a shield against people who might actually want to connect with you." She let out a sigh, rubbing her nose. "I mean, it's nice if you got a mask that hides everything about you, but that's the thing, it hides everything. The good and the bad." She rubbed her cheek a little bit as she spoke. "How can you know to trust someone if you don't even know anything about them? If all you could really glean from them is that they're hiding themselves?"

"That isn't something I can really answer." I said in an even tone. "After all, you can't force such things."

"No, you can't." She replied. "Though you could make them a little easier. I mean, I know you have secrets, everyone has secrets, and they have secrets for a reason." A breath escaped her nose as she said that. "But it'd probably be easier if you seemed more like a person and less like some stone figure sent to give us instruction."

I closed my eyes slowly as I thought over my next words. There was so much I could say but shouldn't, so much I wanted to say but couldn't, so much I should say but wouldn't because that would just confirm all the things she just said about me. It was easier to keep things buried, to keep my personality at arm's length while I wore this mask. It wasn't even just the one, the teacher, the husband, the father, the Kishi, all layers around the central point of who I was. All protections against something terrible that would happen if it ever came out. Secrets were, as she said, kept for a reason, even if the secret was an entire person's existence.

But I didn't know what I could really say, it wasn't like I could talk about the person who shouldn't exist, the life they shouldn't have and the words that couldn't be. Better to stay on something neutral, something harmless.

"I like spicy foods." I said finally.

"You do?" There was curiosity in her voice.

"I do, the strange food you brought, I thought would have been much improved with some more seasonings. Maybe some peppers?"

"I could do that next time, I suppose." She said. "Though I probably won't get a chance to cook again until we get back."

Well, she'd probably fare better than Shiroe. I'd consider saying that out loud, but considering my student's blatant lack of subtlety, I figured that was something that shouldn't be said if I didn't want to get an earful when I did return home.

* * *

The next section of rounds went by quickly, most of the fights happened the way one could predict them. Most of the genin were enraptured by it, especially Hiroshi, though Ume saw fit to sleep through most of it. I would have woken her, but I knew she was exhausted from the previous night. Thankfully, her lower than average reserves meant that her recovery to full after long amounts of exertion was faster than someone with normal or above normal reserves, though less because she did so more quickly and more because it was a lower capacity that needed to be filled.

Hozuki Chigetsu was in the village leader's booth with his bodyguard, so neither myself nor Gonbee, who was also here to watch over the genin, knew what his reactions to the fights were so far. His progeny was doing well, though Kiriko put up a good fight in her battle. The fight between Minami and the large Kumo boy was ended fairly quickly when he caught her early, as was the alternate with Gonmaru and the smaller Kumo boy.

Then was the next match between Ume and Hiroshi.

It was in fact a great match in and of itself, it showed off both of their qualities well. Hiroshi took control of the field almost immediately, directing the battle and keeping his distance, a show of his intelligence and ability to prepare. Ume responded by giving chase with vigor, not holding back to show the things she learned and her ability to react, showing her adaptability and determination. When it came to its final standoff, Ume frozen in his trap and Hiroshi standing there, it was clear they were speaking, but what they said couldn't be heard. I could likely guess. Hiroshi's expression was almost painful as he stared at his teammate. He made it clear that he didn't want a rigged fight before, so I couldn't help but think this was about that. My suspicions were confirmed when the small girl broke her prison and knocked her teammate out with a quick, decisive blow.

The moment this happened my eyes lingered on the kage box. It didn't take long.

Chigetsu appeared from the booth, his gait quick and his expression sour, his bodyguard nowhere to be found as he stalked to the corridor between seats to confront my student. I kept an easy distance as I listened into the conversation. The appearance of Mitsuki a few moments later confirmed the girl hadn't needed to go to the bathroom like she had told her sensei.

It was clever really, not an incredible leap of logic, but probably not something Chigetsu thought they would notice. She used that against him, then made a counter offer so that even though she beat Hiroshi he would get the same amount of money. It was also a threat, an implied one almost certainly. If she spoke of this when she returned freely she could make him lose face. Not much, her word wasn't worth much compared to his, but some because of how gambling looked to others. Never mind the fact that he had asked her to lose was against the rules, there was no counter he could immediately bring against her because it would mean revealing his own breach of etiquette of the exam.

Such a breach could have Kirigakure disqualified from the exam.

As the two girls finished and disappeared inside, I decided it was time I made my presence known. I walked quietly before announcing myself.

"Hozuki-sama." I did a full bow and the man turned towards me.

I finished my bow to see his face was cherry red by this point, and his mouth wrung into a tiny scowl.

"What part of keeping from prying…"

"I am not certain what you speak of. I spoke of no such things to the genin. They must simply have figured it out on their own."

I kept the subject vague and my tone neutral, but it didn't change the fact that Chigetsu wasn't pleased.

"Their own, those comm…" He paused, catching himself and looking around quietly. "Those genin would not think to scheme such things, not without help."

"You underestimate them too much. Those genin went through an ordeal that most of the former and later generation would not know. Such trials do not produce fools." I reminded him.

"Bah, if the true graduation happened half of those genin wouldn't even be here. Especially that wild hare."

I didn't respond to that. I didn't agree, but it was easier just not to answer and let others come to their own conclusions. After a minute of quiet following, I decided to speak again.

"The next match will start soon, you need to return to the booth, Hozuki-sama."

He stared at me, then at the box in his hands, the box of money given to him by genin.

"Seal that and put it away. If I find it missing..."

"Understood." I walked forward and produced a small storage seal before running my errand. I could do it quickly enough to get back for the next match. I wouldn't want to miss it, after all.

* * *

The exams ended without much fuss. The fight between Ume and the larger Kumo boy ended well in her favor. Though the broken bone that disqualified her from participating in the next round caused no small amount of grumbling both from Suigetsu and those who would have wanted to have another round of betting.

Suigetsu got over it quickly though, accepting his chunin vest along with Kiriko and Hiroshi and leaving with grace. Or at least as graceful as he could be, as he seemed to suck down those drinks Ume kept handing him. At least these smoothies were nonalcoholic, as I imagine Chigetsu wouldn't take to such behavior kindly from his second progeny.

Not that Chigetsu's behavior was any better.

He held his tongue, but the fact that a genin who got to the semifinals and would have participated in the finals didn't receive a vest did not go without note. The rumors flew, but I doubt most of the people spreading them understood in this sense it was fueled by pure spite. Which should have been surprising for me, but knowing what I did about the Seven Families, it wasn't.

As a general rule, the higher up in the family a person was, no matter what the family, the more just downright petty they can be against any slight against their face. Which didn't make it much better when Hiroshi confronted him about it.

There was no way the boy didn't understand what he was doing, and admirable as it was that he was putting his own reputation on the line for a teammate, even one that had beaten him in combat publically, it put his own face at risk doing so. He had in no uncertain terms declared Ume his ally, and by extension an ally to the Kishi family. Which basically put himself and all those who would follow him between her and the Hozuki family if Chigetsu ever thought to do anything about Ume later. It was a powerful statement which would give Ume protection she would not have had otherwise from the Hozuki's wrath, but it also meant should Ume do something exceptionally foolish, it would blowback on him.

Which I would bet money on happening, if only because Ume herself had no concept or regard to the idea of face.

For now though, it would be a stop gap from her simply disappearing one day on a mission by some mysterious means. Which was good, because if Ume kept a good rapport with the Sumire, she wouldn't die in her sleep either.

We travelled out of the village and of the country with good time despite the injuries of some of our genin. They were all in one piece, all alive, which was more than they might have been if they were forced into a home exam. We were fortunate it was considered in poor taste to kill an opponent in the one on one matches, because I'm almost certain at least a couple of the shinobi they fought would have done so gladly. But we were headed home and all we had was a stretch of ocean separating us from a safe return.

Which was exactly why things had to go wrong once we were on the ships.

I was awake when Ume appeared with her warning. I let my annoyance fade at her running without her crutch, especially since her injury hadn't fully healed, but it didn't matter since there simply wasn't time. Hozuki Chigetsu gave the commands. Though Kuriarare stood guard to Chigetsu, I jumped to a higher vantage point to get better cover as I started to build chakra to remove the mists.

Breath in, breath out, gather it in your center, convert it from its base nature and...

"Turtle stance, sailors strap down!" I said as I finished my seals.

"Wind Release: Sweeping Gust!"

I pushed the the wind out from my center and in all directions. It pushed out and... it was not looking good. We were outnumbered. Even if we killed the other ships, it would do us no good if we capsized.

I watched the battle field, too many variables, too many enemies, too unfortunate a battlefield. Even with two Hozuki, there wouldn't be a battle here that didn't result in capture or casualties. Even if the genin weren't injured this was too much, especially since it likely wasn't random. That wouldn't matter though, there weren't many options left, I knew that. This would, well, it wouldn't be pleasant, but it had be done.

I jumped on the deck at the same time Kushimaru departed towards another ship, joining the conversation briefly before summoning the moon twins. It had been a long time since I'd called upon them, but their appearance to my call was a comfort at least. I could rely on the rabbits to be there even if I wasn't. I looked at the genin as they came forward, I looked at Chigetsu, then I looked at the swordsman. The decision had already been made, Chigetsu already knew that when the rabbits appeared. Still, it surprised me that as cunning as she could be, the most rebellious of my students didn't grasp this until the end.

"You aren't coming with us."

The words came out as a statement, but it sounded like she wanted it to be a question. Her face surprised and more sad than I thought it would be.

I shook my head.

"There's too many of them, a single swordsman isn't enough. But I can buy time and catch up later."

I reached into my pouch, retrieved my scroll and walked to the others. Hiroshi only turned his head away, his expression guilty as he didn't meet my eyes, Kiriko was looking down, which was why she seemed surprised when I handed her the scroll.

"Keep this safe though, in case something happens."

"In case!" I turned back to Ume, the small girl's eruption bringing nervous glances from the other genin. "You're in the middle of the sea, how in the world would you catch up, even running?!"

"Maybe I can't, but I'm a jonin and your sensei, my job is to protect you. Gonbee will be going with you in case there are stragglers, of course."

After all, if things go bad, they would still need an adult to turn to, and Gonbee was better suited to close combat, not dealing with lots of different ranged opponents. This suited my specialty to a tee, and Gonbee would keep them safe. All of them.

Looking at him, I saw he agreed. Even though he didn't like it, he accepted it.

Chigetsu did as well, his voice steely as he spoke.

"That's appropriate, we should be on our way."

Appropriate would be him staying as well to fight, he was a jonin as well, but he wouldn't take that risk. Though his death would carry the risk of breaking the precarious peace, it didn't surprise me he never suggested the option of fighting himself, even though as a Hozuki he was more than capable.

It wasn't enough for Ume though, the girl jumping off the rabbit, her face red and scrunched up. I knew what was going to happen now.

"The hell we will! I'm not going to just let you s…"

She usually dodged such things with ease, she had a remarkably good battle sense for someone so young, but it spoke about how little she was thinking about the situation as my hand met the flesh of her face. A red mark spread from the impact as she stared up at me, stunned at the sudden tasteless but necessary action.

"You will follow orders, Ume-chan. You will accompany your siblings and your friends and make sure they are safe. You will not stay on this vessel. Now get on the rabbit."

I stared at the little girl and thought of similar words spoken to a younger man. One who was supposed to be dead, one who was only saved through luck and one who got away because his father, my father, did the same.

Ume only stayed stunned for a moment, but she didn't speak as she for the first time followed my orders without hesitation or flak. The girl stared at me, eyes showing more fear than I had seen in her before as she, the genin, Hozuki Chigetsu and Gonbee disappeared as the rabbits took a long leap off the ship and started into the distance. I only looked for a moment before I turned to the ships.

Where was Kuriarare? Likely fighting on another ship. We needed to maximize our effectiveness by staying together. I never fought with the man before, but I knew that much, we needed to prevent being overwhelmed while being an effective target. Looking back again, I reached for my bow and ran up the mast of the ship. A high vantage point was key as I pulled back and gathered my chakra and formed the arrow in my mind and on my bow. An arrow of liquid formed, cool to the touch along with another one heating up, building up carefully and fully as I aimed it upward. It had been a long time since I'd done this, but there were no witnesses to this, after all. There was a dark cloud forming on the tip of the three arrows, heat, cold and moisture, the ingredients for a storm cloud.

"Storm Release: Dark Cloud"

The arrows shot upwards, combining and twisting up, then expanding, a dark cloud twisting in the heavens. Not the conventional use of the jutsu breaking down the components, but it made it easier to push into a range attack instead of just releasing it up close. Now was the next part. Crackling energy formed into the next arrow, though that was interrupted when weapons started raining up from the deck. They were boarding now, well, the crew was gone, so it wouldn't hurt, would it? Running up the mast I started raining lightning arrows onto the deck. In the moist air and the close proximity it wrecked havoc amongst the metal weapons of the attackers as it arced with each shot. I could have likely fried them more, but I needed to keep moving, to get the other ships.

I looked at the ship and the distance. It was a fair distance, though I could see them running the masts to meet me if I were to jump towards theirs.

"Force jump."

I said using half signs for the simple jutsu used by my student. I jumped wide of the mast, surprising those who stood there as I shot them with another lightning arrow before jumping again, wind forcing me upwards as I rained more shots, before landing on the other mast that didn't seem to be expecting me so soon.

The confusion of the crew at my mobility turned towards shouts of hatred. These weren't skilled shinobi, at least not in terms of dealing with a mobile threat as I lined up a shot on the de…

Pain shot through my shoulder as a blur shot past me, going straight through to the other side. I turned to shoot the person but found myself pulled down as wire wrapped my arms and pulled me down on my back against the mast.

I gasped as I went down onto the wood and tried to break it. This was stopped as two feet landed on my chest. My eyes met the mask of the man standing on me.

"Traitor!"

The word escaped my face as the man looked at me.

"Like that word means anything anymore." The swordsman with the sewing needle blade said as the wire tightened on me. "Traitor this, traitor that, but traitor to what? That hole? Hah, I'm surprised that place hasn't already collapsed onto itself. Much better more stable places to work for." He leaned forward, his mask close to mine. "Slavers, for ex…."

The electricity racked his body, going through both our bodies and pushing him back. Pushing up, I snapped the weakened wire and headbutted the stunned swordsman before letting myself drop to the deck. I controlled my descent as I gathered more chakra in my core, did the signs and hit the deck.

"Wind Release: Sweeping Gust"

The would be slavers went flying at my sudden hit, giving me room to ready my bow again.

Kuriarare dashed past me seals flying, and I knew I had to move. You never stay on a battleground that had prep time for a wire user. As I force jumped, the deck exploded in screams as body parts flew, collateral damage of people who hadn't been knocked off from whatever wire contraption the asshole had planted.

Damnit, damnit, damnit, this was bad. Was this a spontaneous thing, or was it always planned? He was gone most of the exams after the training, what was he doing, who was he meeting? It made sense that there were so many now. Slave trade, while universally outlawed was still going on. Shinobi trained slaves were especially valuable, if you could get them with a good compulsion seal, you would have loyal soldiers or else they would die from the compulsion, as that was the only choice in the matter. Nevermind that we had just displayed the value and skills of these particular genin for the world to see.

It was fortunate, really, that they were gone. There were worse fates, but the numbers were few…

As I hit the deck of the last ship, I heard the tug of wire once more and had to move. It didn't matter though, as it caught my leg, cleaving it off through the knee. Shit.

I fell only momentarily to the deck, glancing around to find more casualties of Kuriarare's methods, though several of them still stood, weapons at the ready. I looked at them as I hefted my bow, looking at the storm cloud. It wouldn't take long, but I still needed to buy time.

"Water Release: Tide's Twin Blade"

Water formed around the exterior of my bow as I pushed myself to balance on my one leg, spinning the weapon outward as the blades formed from the moist air. The men rushing forward tried blocking the weapon, but it was useless, water as a blade was hard to control, hard to maneuver, but impossible to block. One instant the watery blades moved through the weapons like nothing, the next they turned completely solid, slashing around and through the people in a wide arc as I spun away the moisture and pulled it closer as another silver blur moved towards me.

I was ready this time as the needle pierced the form, which melted away immediately to reveal the clone. My appearance over Kuriarare's head didn't go unnoticed as I notched an arrow and hit him and the deck with a jolt of electricity. The swordsman moved fast, avoiding a direct shot but leaving himself open as I turned direction and used another force jump to increase the velocity of my descent.

The two of us went sailing off the ship and into the water, breaking under the dark waters, my bow's edge going forward to pierce the figure, who started to bleed in the dark water, slumping down as I started to break towards the surface.

Adrenaline started to fade as I almost made it to air. I was bleeding out fast, both from my shoulder and leg. I needed to get to the ships, to stop the remaining enemies, nee…

The wire caught my neck, pulling me down and burning my neck as Kuriarare reeled me back, promising to take both of us to a watery grave.

Damnit, no, no, I wouldn't end it this way. There were still enemies on the surface, if they caught up they could still overwhelm the genin. Even as weakened as they were, the genin weren't trained in sea combat and lacked a vessel, they couldn't, they couldn't be captured, couldn't be put in chains to die as soldier slaves, I wouldn't let them. I couldn't let them, let them...

I couldn't let them be slaughtered, like my family had.

Energy filled me as I released a part of me I'd almost forgotten existed. Raw emotion, raw force, like a tidal wave filling me and pushing outward, a thunderbolt hitting the sea. No control, just emotion, releasing outward, no thought required, no second guessing just anguish at the thought, the thought of losing any more.

Black and white crackled and burst out from me in all directions, forcing back my attacker as I myself burst out of the water, flying upwards at the force my explosion. It was storm release in its purest form, no guiding, no formula, no condensation for safety, just electricity bursting outward and about. But it wasn't done, I wasn't done.

I directed myself to the deck, to the mast, my bow in my hand as I formed the last part of the arrow, the last nail in this coffin, because while pure storm release was powerful, condensation and preparation was even more so.

"Storm Release:" I gritted out through my teeth as the glowing arrow formed in my bow, bigger and wild than I'd managed before, but still in form. "Raijin's Wrath!"

The arrow shot up and hit the clouds, which sparked and glowed with anger and fury before it struck down. The ultimate jutsu of the Arashi clan, a three step process. Make the cloud, mark the targets with a negative charge, release the final charge. Long, complicated and deadly as three bolts as thick as Konoha trees hit the decks, pure white light engulfing the ships and the world.

For a moment I only knew the whiteness, the ringing in my ears and the pounding of my blood even as I flew through the air. But eventually I fell, the thin air not supporting me as I flew so fast and so hard that rolling waves may as well have been concrete for how they treated my body. But it didn't matter anymore. As my body floated up and hit the surface, I knew my job was done.

Laying there, I saw the blackness start to creep over my vision, a darkness I knew would consume me but couldn't bring myself to fight. It had been so long, after all, so long since I had seen my father, my mother, my siblings and my cousins. Would it be so bad to go see them again?

"I guess not" I said to no one. "I wish my girl could have seen them though, I wish she had known them, that Shiroe had known them. But wishes can't really be fulfilled in this world."

I then looked at my bow for a moment, then my body. Would they look for me? Maybe, but I doubted they'd find me, not in this sea. But there was still something I could save.

It wasn't much, but it was all I really had to remember my father, my clan with. All they really let me keep. My bow, said to be stolen, but actually passed down. It didn't belong in the sea.

The small black rabbit appeared sorrowful, its ears drooping as it appeared.

"Senshu-san, why are you going so soon?"

"Not my choice Kuromi, but I suppose that it doesn't matter much now." I handed over my bow to her. "Please, take this to my family, can you manage that?"

The rabbit moved forward, grabbing it.

"Are you sure, we can, we can help you, we can…"

"You don't have the energy to take me to your realm, and even if you did, I'm a goner anyway. It's fine, you needn't taint your burrow with my corpse."

"But your family." The little rabbit said. "Family never leaves each other behind."

I smiled at the rabbit.

"I suppose, if you wish you can have the others pull my body, but please take my bow to my family, to my little girl. Let her have something from her father."

The rabbit hopped forward and grabbed the headband from my forehead.

"This as well."

"No" I shook my head. "No, she should, she shouldn't have this life. Just, ju.."

Words faded as the darkness began to swallow me.

"Just, go…"

I managed in a whisper as my sight started to vanish. I tried to stay longer, tried to hear the rabbit to see if she left with my bow, or left my headband, but then, that didn't matter. It all didn't matter anymore, because this was done, it was over.

They were safe.

* * *

 **This took forever to write, and I have been working on it on and off for months. Probably because he's well, he's not going to get another one. This cooresponds to the second half of the chunin exams, so chapter 52-61 roughly. It's also the longest single chapter of everything I've ever written. Kansen's a lot of things, but most of it isn't explored in story because Ume never really clicked with him on a personal level, this isn't because they couldn't in theory get along, just that they didn't which of course happens. They are actually very similar in personality though. Next POV may come a bit faster, or not, been busy. I haven't decided who I'm doing next.**

 **Reviews would be nice, thank you.**


	7. Zabuza

Zabuza

Death or pain. Honestly, it wasn't much of a choice at this point. I wanted to live, but I knew what would come if I went back.

They didn't see me, no one ever did except him, the only person I didn't want to, but it didn't matter. He would kill me if I returned to him, so there was no point. He claimed it was because I was weak and he was strong, he claimed it was because this was the only way a useless child like me could have value. Maybe it was so, it wasn't like anyone ever looked my way.

Not until I had killed the first of them.

Those who were trained, that's what they were called sometimes, monsters other times. He didn't like them; no, scratch that, he was afraid of them. I didn't know why, the first died so easily. It was probably female, couldn't tell after I slammed its head into the pavement too many times. The blood splattered on the floor. Tougher than a normal person, but slammed enough times and they'd be unconscious like anyone, a few more and dead. The second came at me with a blade. It was sleek and shiny, I took it and shoved it into their eyes. It was sharper than a bottle, or often times a piece of rock I had to use when they made me fight for amusement. It showed with how easily it cut.

It felt good that it was easy. Trained, heh, more like afraid. They didn't know fear, didn't know fighting not to die, so they hesitated when I came at them. One, two, five, twenty, some ran, some fought back, all died.

When it was done, when the mist cleared I was alone with those so called monsters. It was only then the pain hit me and I went to my knees. The concrete under them was wet with blood, I felt my own start to trail down my face as rain started to fall. The rain hit me and soaked the ground and the bodies of all that remained. The blood draining away the remaining evidence of life.

It didn't matter, it was over. I looked up at the rain and closed my eyes. Maybe I could have run, but I was tired. My hair clung to my face in wet clunks as I felt the chill in my bones. It was familiar in a way. The cold hurt more than those students ever did, not that the thin cloth did much to help but another chill hit me as I felt someone standing nearby.

When my eyes opened I scrambled to my feet, the stained blade in my hand as I looked at a boy. He didn't look much older than I did, with light colored hair and brighter eyes, he was in a green scarf. He stared down at me for a moment, but that wasn't what struck me the most.

He wasn't afraid.

Was he another of the monsters? He seemed, coiled, almost. Like if I moved he'd strike me down and it would be done.

"You gonna kill me?"

The words came out strangely and I flinched back when he moved his hand, expecting a blade or a backhand as normal when I spoke.

Instead a hand was put on my shoulder.

"What is your name?"

"Trash doesn't have a name."

I repeated the words out of instinct and tried to turn away. The hand on my shoulder kept me there. I was waiting for the hand again but it didn't come. There was only the cold of the rain and the warmth of the hand.

"I suppose not." It wasn't a reprimand. "But you are not trash, you're a shinobi, shinobi have names."

"Shinobi?"

"You passed the graduation, the graduation that was to determine who would become the next generation of shinobi." The boy continued. "Usually there are more but if they were weak enough to be killed by a single child they would have been of no use anyway. Now, for a name. Do you have any for me?"

I blinked at the boy, truthfully no one had ever thought much to give me one. I did know a name though, I knew his name. I knew what he did.

"Momochi."

"The Momochi? I thought they were dead."

The boy put a hand on his face, a pondering look that didn't suit his age. How old was this boy? He looked young but he didn't act it. Mind you, he didn't act like most adults I knew since he had yet to raise a hand to me when I spoke.

"Well, I suppose something must have gone through the cracks. Well, if one were to carry that legacy it could be redeemed. What about a given name?"

I shook my head at him.

"How strange, well, let's look at you."

He appraised my appearance then went to my hand, the hand that still clutched the blade. It wasn't a long blade, but it was soaked in blood. Their blood, those I had killed. It had happened in many ways, though most commonly...

"Decapitation, very efficient way to kill. Though that sword will need to be replaced, the blade is terribly chipped."

He moved to take it from me and I took a step back, holding it closer. No way was I giving up a weapon. He didn't take it from me, but then looked at the field.

"Huh, zen, fu, sa, no, rearrange it, and, ah," He turned back and pointed at me. "Your name is Zabuza, Momochi Zabuza, Shinobi of the Hidden Mist."

Zabuza, that sounded, well I didn't know what it sounded like. I'd heard names before but none like that. But then, a shinobi. It was a word used like a curse among them. A term they jeered but at the same time feared. I knew they feared them more than they said. It was why they ran and why they left me here to face the monsters, the monsters they said were shinobi. But I had killed them. So now, I was one.

It made sense, that was what this world was. You were strong or you were weak. They had been weak, I had killed them so I was considered strong.

The boy stood next to me, looking me up and down.

"That's your name, though you'll need a new sword, new clothing. Proper shinobi can't wear rags. Let us get you in something dry."

The boy walked forward again, pushing me out of my thoughts. I looked at him and the words came before I could retract them.

"Who are you?"

He turned to look at me and I took a step back, gripping the bladed weapon hard as I expected an attack. I shouldn't have asked, I shouldn't ha…

"Karatachi Yagura, Mizukage of the Hidden Mist." He said before glancing over my stance. "Come on now, a shinobi shouldn't let themselves get sick standing in the rain. It is a waste of resources."

Yagura, this was Yagura, his father had said he was the king of the monsters but he was, but this boy he didn't look that old.

"What is a shinobi?"

I asked, the words coming out as a whisper. What was the thing I was now? I had always just been called the trash. Lucky trash, but trash, but if I was something new I should know what it was.

I wouldn't have been so bold to have asked from him but this boy seemed at least willing to answer.

"A fair question, a shinobi is a tool. Much like that blade, a tool for war, for killing and for other work. Specifically the shinobi of the Mist are my tools, as you are now my tool as a shinobi. Do you understand?"

The word came with a flare of, something, something came from him that made me gasp and made me stagger, going to my knees and dropping my blade shaking. Not fear, malice, hatred, no. More than that. Power. This wasn't a boy, this was a monster, a real monster in human form. What he was doing I didn't know but I had to ask, if I was to be devoured I had to.

"Will you kill me?"

"If you betray me, yes." The pressure continued on me and I felt it in my chest. But a moment passed and it was gone. "But why would you do that? You are my tool now."

He walked over and held out his hand.

"And tools are to be taken care of. You do not simply discard a blade that has dulled, nor do you simply kill such a talent that could be raised. Doing so would be a waste and we cannot afford to waste such promising resources."

I stared up at him and his hand. I didn't know if I could trust him, but I knew he could kill me, which was proof enough that I couldn't go against him. Death or pain, if this hurt it would be no different than normal, but there was a promise in there that I would at least have something better to wear.

I took his hand. It wasn't like I had anywhere else to return to.

* * *

Blood poured down my face as a kick shoved me into the wall. A moment later I felt something crack and through the sticky blood pouring down my eyes I could make out Kubikiribocho sticking out of the wall just under my arm.

"You didn't come at me with a plan."

"Yes I did."I shot back, eyes closed against the blood.

He cut me across the forehead, it fucking stung but it was a shallow wound and a warning he could have chopped the top of my head off.

"Not a very good one." The man with the stripped tattoos on his face said with a huff as he pulled the sword out of the concrete as easily as if he was moving it through bread.

"What did I tell you about fighting on instinct? It'll work against an unprepared opponent, but not on me. You need a plan, a real plan, especially when fighting someone above your level or you'll be little more than a bloody stain on their shoes."

I gritted my teeth, he said that, but it never worked. It slowed me down, planning for his attacks and he would use that opening to beat me. It was easier to go on reflexes, but he used those against me too. It was damn near impossible to get any ground on this man.

I guess that's why he was a Seven Swordsman.

I felt water pour on my face washing away the blood.

"Clean yourself up, get yourself to medical before you scar."

"Like you're one to talk about scars." I shot back as I rubbed my eyes.

"I'm not some brat picked up from the street who can't manage a half decent henge. Get going, scars are markers, they make you distinctive and distinctive shinobi are either good or dead. Guess which one you'll be?"

I bore my teeth at him as I glanced back at him. Juzo was a lot of things, excessive, bossy, overbearing and very stringent with his schedule. But he was also a monster in combat. Not even the same type of monster Yagura was. Yagura was power, pure controlled power, Juzo was something different. He had high expectations and though I didn't match them he didn't berate me for not trying. I think he was just surprised I kept up with his schedule.

What did he expect? It's not like he was actually trying to kill me, I knew very well the difference and this was one of them.

I walked the short distance to the stone building hospital. The nurse didn't even blink at me as she pointed me to a room and foisted a wide eyed medical corp on me. The girl had probably got at least three years on me and she was startled by the blood and bruises. I rolled my eyes at her.

"Well, get on with it. I got an hour before I have to get back and I'd like to eat something."

Whenever I was sent to medical it was unstated that I would have to return within an hour's time where he'd either attack me again or drill me on strategy. That's how it always was when he was in the village. Otherwise, they made me sit inside and work through sheets. According to him my lack of education was as disappointing as my inability to mold chakra properly for jutsu and no amount of physical talent was going to fix it, so I had to suck it up or be left in the cold.

It was not like he ever tried to teach me jutsu, but then I guess that wasn't his purpose as a tool. Whatever, he could snap at me all he wanted but nothing he did was without a purpose. No lecture without a point, no pain without a lesson, no meaningless violence.

That was the difference that got me the most, what made shinobi different. Shinobi were monsters, but they, as far as I could see, didn't act without purpose. It was much different from them. But then again, I didn't give two shits about them, they left me to die and fled.

As the girl fumbled and glowed about the cuts closed and the pain from the bruises receded. She then cleaned away the blood and treated the wounds with a balm. It took maybe ten minutes of time before she released me. I pushed past her when done and gave her a small nod to show that it was fine. No point in talking here.

* * *

"I kind of expected more."

The rundown little hole he was in didn't inspire much of anything. Not even much of a defensible location. It hadn't even been that hard to find.

"You expect too much from Yakuza." Ao said through his ANBU mask. "Rats the lot of them, clinging to a shattered system like it means anything anymore. Smarter ones would have cut and run a long time ago."

They had.

At least it had felt that way to me. Four years added onto my very short life, yet it was like a world apart. Four years a shinobi, four years a tool instead of just trash and here I was.

"Let's hurry up and clean up, there should be nothing left of them in our country."

Ao said as he motioned in the darkness and we moved silently to the side of the shack. That was ANBU life, no trace, no evidence. You struck then you disappeared. I much prefered it to swordsman missions. If ANBU was sent somewhere it was just a job, if the swordsman were sent somewhere it was a statement. It was more politics than anything else. Screw it, leave that noise to Juzo.

It didn't take long to kill the meager force inside. He was last though, at the back he put up something like a resistance but that faded as I stabbed the kunai into his chest and pinned him to the wall. It was funny honestly, looking at him. He was still as big as he ever was, he had always been a big man. Meaty fists that balled up and swung at me when I closed in, but was he always so slow?

Didn't matter, he could hardly breathe as I stared at him through my mask, he tried to grab my shoulder and pushed me back. The size difference should have mattered, I was only twelve, but it didn't. He pushed and pushed but I stayed in place as the life and blood drained out of his face. It should have been more satisfying, but it wasn't.

It was too pathetic to be.

I pulled the knife out and looked at Ao, who glanced back.

"He looks a bit like you, Momochi Touma."

"I'm nothing like him."

Ao crossed his arms as the veins on the side of his head receded to normal, it was near undetectable under the ANBU mask but still there if you knew to look.

"Indeed, you know how to fight. I believe this is the last of them."

"Probably."

I wasn't sure, there were some missing from here, I knew that. The faces of what was once the Momochi family had been burned into my memory. But it was possible that the other pair had killed them off. They'd only know until they did an actual account, even then I was the only one who knew most of them by name. It was why I'd been requested to do the mission.

It was also why I'd accepted.

"Very clean, very good, you went through training well."

"The ANBU training wasn't much different from normal."

Honestly, constant trying to force pressure and stamina, why did they expect his swordsman training was any different? Though the lessons on pressure points and the silent killing jutsu were very useful.

"Regardless, we should move on. We'll torch the place then ground the ashes."

Walking out of the shack I followed behind Ao. There was no point in looking back, they were dead and as he said, it was time to move on.

* * *

He was dead.

The sword on the table in front of me was proof enough of that. Biwa Juzo, the man who had been my teacher defected two years ago and now he was dead.

I looked at Yagura as he sat back in his chair. It was the official chair of the Mizukage and as always he looked ridiculous sitting in it, with the hat looking more like a discarded basket on his small head. His youthful appearance was always jarring to people not used to it, but anyone with a lick of sense knew not to speak of it.

"I'm sorry I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by, otherwise I would have let you do it in a more traditional manner."

In which he meant that he expected me to kill him. I could have done it, if he hadn't seen me coming or had time to plan, that was. Though I didn't doubt he likely had a plan anyway. It was well known the traditional way the swords traded hand. This was fine, it suited me better than Hiramekarei anyway and it would be better than trading off using the sword with Mangetsu. Young as he was, he was better with it, the large pool of chakra that his clan had better suited to the changing twin blade. It was a shame he hadn't been trained by its former owner, but disease had claimed Ameyuri Ringo before she could pass on her knowledge.

Reaching out, I grabbed the handle of the sword and tested its weight. It was the heaviest of the swords, but I had experience before wielding it. Before he left Juzo might have considered breaking tradition and willingly given up his role. At least, that's how it seemed until he left. I set the sword down before speaking.

"Is that all, Mizukage-sama?"

"We're in private, no need for ceremony." He pulled the hat off his head, setting it down on the table. "Sit down, we haven't had a proper chat yet, we need to discuss the future."

"Bit late for that considering the circumstances."

They were down two swords out of seven now, Raiga having disappeared shortly after Juzo and Kabutowari had disappeared in the last war.

"The times are changing Zabuza, as is the guard. The new Seven Swordsman will need to take up apprentices, so I would like you to be on the lookout." Yagura said as he leaned back. "I'll be honest, the last generation hasn't been very promising."

At least not since Mangetsu. The change of tradition caused by my graduation had flicked the switch from quality to quantity. In fact, there was an almost frantic need to get as many students into the academy as possible to push through. Orphans most of them, though none as good as Mangetsu, who graduated not two years ago but was already close to mastering all the swords.

"We can't fall behind Zabuza, if need be look beyond the academy. Private tutoring isn't too difficult with your say so. You've always had great taste in subordinates, I'm sure they'll be plenty." Yagura looked down at the sword. "Loyal."

He let the word in closed air before standing. His gait was quick as he headed towards the door. I let out a breath as I looked at the sword. Loyalty, a strange word to throw around nowadays. It wasn't as common as it should have been, who would go against the village?

My sensei, apparently.

It didn't matter, Juzo had been my teacher, but Yagura was my mater. Though it was strange, how he spoke more of loyalty than he used to. It was implied before, but something was, off. I wasn't sure what. Reaching down I picked up the sword and hefted it in my hand. I always knew it would be there at some point, though not like this.

Maybe it was better this way.

* * *

The report in the area said there had been a large display of a kekkei genkai that destroyed a farm house. Large was a relative term among common people but looking at it I had to whistle at the sheer size of it.

"Lot of power."

"Local information says that house belonged to a family of three, the father was born in the village so unlikely, so either the mother or the child."

Mangetsu stood in the snow as he looked over the landscape. Always cool and professional. Nevermind he was only twelve.

"A child could do that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"First generation even away from the family doesn't dilute the blood. It can even make for stronger results in some cases. It depends, it's too cold to thaw this out to check the bodies."

"So a woman or a kid, probably fled to a nearby village." I said.

"There's only two active ones in the area, one of them was cleaned out as a mob came to destroy them. It's entirely possible the exertion killed them as well even if the cold won't. The Yuki have some immunity against the cold, but disease, fatigue and hunger could do them in."

I nodded. So basically this could be a wild goose chase. Great, what a fantastic use of our time, terrorizing a bunch of villages trying to find some hiding Yuki.

It was basically a political statement for us to even look at this point. Though for the life of me I couldn't think why it mattered. Few people wander off and don't want to be ninja anymore, why hunt them down like this? Didn't matter, it was still my mission as I headed into town.

I walked straight to the main building, opened the door and saw the man.

"Are you the village head?" I said quickly.

"Yes I'm…"

The man narrowed in on my headband and my sword. I could feel the fear, but I didn't need to. He was shuddering as he spoke.

"Swordsman-sama I…"

"Just get everyone to the square alright. I need to do a check."

I turned out and walked away. No need to see him scrambling or cowering, this was going to be pain enough as it was.

There was parade of people yelling out accusations, throwing neighbors or loved ones in the street, pointing fingers not long after. The hysteria of the blood limit hunting catching quickly even after it subsided mostly two years ago. I only tolerated it for about a minute before I pulled my sword off my back and hit the ground.

The impact cut the air, making a short boom that created silence in the square.

"I am going to make it clear I don't CARE what scores you have to settle. I want everyone, and I mean EVERYONE in a line right now. I will test every single one of you, so don't fucking push."

There was a moment where they just stared but I glared and exerted my presence on them and they scurried like mice to get in line. It took longer than just doing the women and the children, but honestly doing it more evenly prevents people from pointing fingers later.

It was a simple test, chakra paper between the hands, ask them to push effort into it, figure out their element. Wind and water was what I was looking for. Most of them couldn't manage that much, but blood's a good enough substitute to get a result. I was glad it was a small village, but I still run low, having to tear the paper a few times to get enough pieces.

But nothing, no dual affinities, no Yuki, no fanfare.

A fantastic way to spend a day even in this crappy weather.

* * *

I found myself considering why I was in a shitty bar during winter. Oh right, there was the bans that had started to border on insanity.

At first the closed borders were just for civilians and merchants, but now shinobi weren't allowed to take out of country missions. Which might have been fine except all the new genin they churn out weren't allowed to leave the village for travel missions. So here I was, a jonin, a seven swordsman doing a simple courier mission in the middle of winter, because of this lunacy.

I'd asked, as always it was the same answer. To ensure loyalty. Which was a fallacy, you can't make people be loyal if you can't show you trust them. If they fail that trust, you kill them, it's not like they can get far with the borders closed.

Except with the borders closed more and more shinobi were disappearing.

A country that claims to value loyalty losing its lifeblood because of the measures taken to somehow ensure it.

It was suffocating, probably more so than the bar, which was sweltering hot.

I stood and walked into the cold air to try and clear my head. Except it made no sense, how could we use weapons if we kept them locked up?

My feet found me walking down the snow laden street. It was a small city, a Mizushima outpost to which he had delivered the message. Probably something trivial, like a trade manifest, but again, everything was cut off. No one else could travel in this weather, not without risking death from the exposure or sliding carts on the ice laden roads. It would be a perfect time to send genin out to get used to the cold was what my sensei would say, used to say.

I let out a breath as I turned the corner. Two dogs run past me, holding scraps of food and leaving a scraggly boy standing not far away. His hands and arms were covered in dirt. The trash behind him showed pretty quickly that he'd been rummaging through it. When he saw me though, he ran away.

Smart kid.

But there was something off, and it occured to me faster as I walked. He was not wearing much, even in the freezing cold, scraps covered his body and he was barefoot yet he didn't shiver nor hesitate as he ran. A normal child would have patches of red on his body from the cold, or patches of black or blue showing frostbite in such light clothing. He had none, only one conclusion could be made for that.

A Yuki.

It had been weeks since we went to investigate that house, this city hadn't been close but it hadn't been far either. He must have walked for at least one of those weeks straight, but considering how thin he was it was possible he made it. The boy stopped at the bridge and grabbed the bar. The other side of the bridge was guarded so he couldn't cross it. Instead he dropped down, his arms across his legs as he sat in the cold. A defensive position to prevent from being hurt too much. I could imagine he has bruises from being kicked. Orphans weren't treated well in the winter, especially this far from Kirigakure.

The boy looked up when he realized I was not going to hurt him. As I met his eyes I could see it, it was clear as day in the boy's eyes.

Nothing.

No fear, no hesitance, but also no emotions, none except resignation. He knew what I was, he also knew I could kill him, but it didn't matter. The law said I should kill him, put him out of his misery, honestly. This wasn't much of a life, no one would take him in, especially if they figured out who he was.

Except, I couldn't shake his eyes. I couldn't shake that look, I knew it.

The look of nothing for someone who had nothing.

I broke the silence.

"Kid, do you want to be needed by someone?"

From the nothing there was a flicker, it moved from his eyes and to his body and the kid rose. I was surprised he had the strength with how beaten he was, but there was no shaking as he walked forward. Unafraid, unwavering and completely trusting he walked forward. He didn't speak even as I reached out, didn't hesitate. He had no fear, not that I could kill him at this moment, snap his neck with just a gesture, not that I could do some atrocity to him. He had nothing, but he survived.

He had potential.

* * *

Haku does not speak unless spoken to. He does not eat unless I offer him food or state otherwise. Already, he defers to everything I do as his reference.

He understands how little it would take to kill him.

Yet he does not stagnate, does not hesitate nor does it wither his ability to learn. As I sit with him he works on his letters, not saying a word as he moves his brush. He wasn't illiterate like I was when I was found, but he couldn't read kanji. They don't teach kanji to civilians, still he takes the lessons and goes through them. I am hardly necessary, which is good since I cannot be there all the time.

It is a small house I purchased in a small village not far from Kirigakure. It is cleanly swept and when I arrive he has a small meal ready. Someone taught him to cook, his mother? Maybe, but as spring starts to come more missions come up and he takes his own initiative to start a small garden.

"What plants are these?"

"Medicinal ones, you were injured when you last came and these help with pain." He responded as he stood with a teapot. It's warm and bitter, a flavor I liked but he only drank sparingly when we sat together.

"How much medicine do you know?"

"Only a little, there is a medicine woman in this village. I find herbs for her when it is too cold for her to get them herself. She helps me do it."

I nod.

"Medicine is another shinobi tool, to heal and to harm are two sides of the same coin. I'll start you on anatomy books and studies."

"Yes Zabuza." He says.

"How are you focusing exercises going?"

"I cannot measure them. But I am working on them slowly. I found something out though, should I demonstrate?"

I nod and he sets down the pot, holding out both hands. They are well calloused now. Not the delicate hands he had before. It's a delicate build to his frame but it's less scrawny and more wiry. He holds out both hands and the air condenses before creating a seed, it blooms outward imitating a plant before blooming out into a lily. A complicated form with detail.

I shatter it with a flick of my finger.

"Work on making sturdier things, pretty things won't serve you in battle. Thick constructs no one can shatter will make good shields and platforms so you can change the field how you see fit."

"Yes Zabuza."

Haku sits again as I look at him.

After about two or so hours going over some tactics, the two of us go into the woods and spar. It is his weakest area, yet he still improves as the days go by. I come at him in full strength and he dodges away, aiming to take out my legs. I put weight down and strike him in the chest, knocking away his breath.

"You should go high, not low. Go for the head or the neck." He nods at me, but I don't think he will try. "You can't expect to win if you don't aim to kill."

"Yes Zabuza." He repeats and tries again.

It takes another hour before we stop. He tries for the head and neck, but at the last moment hesitates and I take him down when he does. He's bruised but not too badly, the salves will ease the pain and his chakra will heal him. He has a good supply of it, just a bit more than average.

"Your hesitation is pulling you down, a weapon does not hold back, a weapon does not hesitate when a task needs to be done."

"Yes Zabuza, but," It's a change in his normal response. He looks at me like he is expecting punishment. But I just wait. Eventually the words form. "If I hurt you."

"You won't hurt me." I say easily enough.

"But..."

He looks at my face and I suppose I can guess who he's thinking of. Because the light in his eyes dims just a bit. I can't make him forget what happened, I'm not sure it would help any even if I could.

There needs to be an answer here. Though not one I prefer I remember something my sensei once said.

"If you're strong enough, you don't have to kill."

Haku looks up but doesn't reply.

"If that's what you're worried about. I've told you before, about controlling a battlefield."

"If you control the battlefield, you control the battle, if you control the battle, you control the outcome, if you control the outcome you can create victory even in unlikely situations." Haku mimed back the words just as I had done the same with Juzo. "You have to be strong to control a battlefield."

"No, you do not have to be strong. You have to be smart, you have to be skilled, precise and fast on top of being strong. Then you can end battles before they begin, you can even end battles without spilling a single drop of blood."  
Reaching over I put a hand on his head before I put an arm around his shoulder. He doesn't resist the movement.

"And you are, you are smart, you are fast, you are weak now but that will change. Because you are my weapon and I will sharpen you to a fine point."

There is only a small pause before he responds again.

"Yes Zabuza."

We sit in the cold, the snow is already melty and spring is almost here. It hadn't been very long but he was progressing. How skilled would he be in a year, how far would he progress in two? Assuming he didn't plateau he would be easily a S class shinobi when he's fully grown. It's a little thing, but I don't regret taking him in in these moments, he was a raw gem when I found him but he would shine with time. He is talented, he's calm, he's hardworking and loyal.

He's everything a Kiri shinobi should be, so why was his clan executed?

* * *

"You brought someone with you on a mission."

The words were simple and concise but I had to suppress the urge to curse. Yagura's eyes found mine and I met them. In normal company this would be a slight, but Yagura liked to be direct in private.

"My apprentice."

"I didn't know you had taken one." Yagura said. "From the academy?"

"No, I didn't take one of those raw chum you call academy graduates."

The genin from the academy were weak sheltered shinobi who knew nothing of war or adaption.

Then there was the seven families. I could almost laugh at how poorly their so called heirs and prodigies were, barely any talent among them. Some of them could perhaps swing a sword but other than that they were little more than pampered dogs who knew nothing of the hunger or desperation of real battle.

"I see. A stray then? Unusual but given your background not entirely unexpected. Are they a swordsman?"

"Not yet, I took the direct approach and trained him from scratch. He knows basic swordsmanship but right now we're focusing on his speed."

It wasn't the standard way but Haku was an investment, which meant that he needed a solid foundation. One of the problems with the academy was how useless the students were outside of the one field they were designated talented. I wouldn't teach Haku the sword until I was sure he could do fine without, too many of the newer generation became all but useless when taken out of what was considered their primary element.

"He, so it's a boy, when and where did you find him?" Yagura started.

"He was a stray, as you said. Found him begging for scraps, but he's talented. Give me a year and I could get him to chunin certainly." Not that it was that hard given the standards.

"That is impressive. Any special talents, jutsu?"

"Water jutsu, and some wind. He also has talent in medicine making and great strategic planning skill."

"Multi-talented then. Wind is rare, with water, an unusual combo." Yagura looked up at me. "I want to meet him."

"He's not polished yet. It wouldn't be suitable."

A meeting would mean a demonstration and I couldn't be sure Yagura wouldn't just kill him if he found out. Yagura was a direct person when he needed to be, he had ordered the executions with the Daimyo. I couldn't really hide what Haku was, it was as natural to him as breathing, but he would be a fantastic weapon. Just needed time for him to get ready.

Yagura didn't immediately respond. Instead he stared at me, I used to be able to maybe guess what he was thinking but that was getting more and more hard. Old tells, his wrinkling his nose in displeasure, the way he touched his staff it wasn't there. It was just this blank face.

"This isn't like you, Zabuza."

"You're the one who keeps saying I need to be more patient." I said. "First time I've seen anything worth being patient for. I'll bring him if you ask, but..."

Yagura waved his hand.

"No, no, I won't force it. I'm glad you got an apprentice, Zabuza. I'm sure I'll meet them in time."

I could feel some of the anxiety fade away. That was more like Yagura.

* * *

Only a slicked flat of dirt met me when I returned to the house, plowing into the trees and burying the deep village.

A mudslide, the village was downhill in a small valley, except the rain wouldn't be enough to cause something like this. Anger welled in my gut as I ran across the top of the deceptively solid looking surface. Slick mount of deceptive looking mud, not strong enough to hold a normal person's weight but heavy enough to bury and suffocate. Running through the handsigns I drew the water out into a large form, the dirt drying out became lighter and receded, showing the formally buried village. People lay in the street, some slammed against buildings, others buried in holes and windows that had been filled.

It was not that sight that drew me. Perfectly round, the icy globe was only about as tall as I was. But it was thick and pure white. Drawing my blade, I cut clear through the top and looked inside.

He was curled into himself, hands around his knees to protect his face. Just like the day at the bridge. I reached in, pulled him out by his shirt and laid his back to the ice. My hand was on his neck, he was cold but there was a pulse there, slow and steady. A moment later he let in a breath. He sucked in air like he had been lacking. It's hard to tell how long he'd been there, but I didn't doubt he'd have suffocated had I been later, how much I couldn't tell, but for the moment he was alive.

"Wake up!"

I said it with a shake and he shuddered again. His eyes fluttered open before he let out a gasp. His hand was on his chest.

I put a hand on his shoulder.

"Talk to me, what is your name? What type of tea do you make me?"

"Haku, you like gyokuro tea."

"Stand."

He nodded but needed a moment to steady himself before he could. He was shaky, but it was hard to tell if it was because the lack of oxygen had damaged him.

Damn it, damn them.

"What happened?"

"Was doing letters, but there was a rumbling. People were screaming, I went to the window and the buildings were going down. I rooted myself, made it, made it thick and sturdy."

He wrapped his arms around his shoulders.

"It was small, I didn't know how long…"

"Stop." I ordered. "We're leaving."

There was a pause in his posture but he nodded.

"Yes Zabuza."

He reached out and I grabbed his hand, walking briskly from the village. I walked up the hill but it didn't quell my anger. There were barriers in place but they had been dismantled, a Hamasaki saboteur's work if I'd ever seen one. How dare they, how dare they?!

No one else knew. Not really, not about this. That damn kill order, the damn barricade, then Yagura. This wasn't right, how could it be? They said the bloodlines were too bloodthirsty, that their drive for war pushed them to do horrible things. They couldn't be trained, couldn't be trusted, couldn't be good shinobi.

But Haku proved that all wrong.

And they almost took him.

I stopped to stare at the village but my head went up, not far in the distance was Kirigakure. The cause of this. No, him, he caused this.

Why? Why do all this? Why slaughter when they could be soldiers, why isolate when we needed to take jobs? What had changed? I didn't know, but I knew it had happened. The Yagura I knew valued talent, valued hard work, took the bastard son of some Yakuza thug and turned him into a shinobi. But that man wouldn't do this, wouldn't order something like that.

No, that man was gone. Where that left me, I wasn't sure. I was his tool, but I couldn't be a part of this if this was the results.

"Where are we going Zabuza?"

It took me a moment to remember I was still walking, still dragging Haku by the hand.

"We're going to get supplies." I said roughly. "Then, we're going to change some things."

I let go and Haku looked at me. His large hazel eyes looked at mine. No hesitation as he nodded at me.

"Yes Zabuza."

* * *

 **There's Zabuza's POV, I'm sure some other authors have done their takes on what happened, well here's mine. Zabuza's got pretty low standards for humanity for good reason.**

 **Anyway, posted on tumblr some size comparisons for the swords used in the story, if you want to take a look. Will be trying to get more POVs done and finish the current Sugar Plums arc by the end of the year.**

 **Reviews are always appreciated.**


	8. Benjiro 2

Benjiro 2

The trip through the Land of Fire was a hard one. Not just because once I got to a certain point I had to sign on with a civilian caravan, which was as always painfully slow, or that spending the last two weeks underground had made sleeping back into a sunlight based schedule hard.

The hardest part of all of it was just how alone I felt there.

I never really thought about it before, but I'd never really been alone before. I spent my entire childhood at an orphanage, surrounded by people. Then the academy, then with my team after that. Even when Gonmaru had left to go to the Chunin exams I wasn't alone, I trained with Fujiko for days with our sensei and we still did D-Rank missions while they were gone. But now, I really was alone, not physically but mentally.

It didn't strike me until then just how different shinobi were to civilians.

Maybe it was because Ume or Kiriko would sometimes bring it up, that the civilians were kind of scared of us. I mean, I didn't blame them, I was scared of what the others could do. Mitsuki could shoot you in the head with a water arrow from a hundred meters away, Minami made scrolls explode into a fully loaded trap that would catch you and all the people around you and then explode again. Chojuro had taken an entire platoon by himself, Gonmaru could literally move mountains, Hiroshi knew more elemental jutsu than some jonin and Ume was, well, she was almost a textbook example of a near perfect assassin.

Seriously, it was scary how quickly Ume could kill people.

But I never really understood that it wasn't just that we were stronger than them, because I found myself really at a loss at what to talk to them about. It wasn't because they were stupid, most of the people I was traveling with were merchants. They had a wide array of booths and products, they spoke about numbers, sales estimates, limiting stock, when and where they should focus sales based on what days the exams were and so much more. But they seemed so consumed with all that they seemed to miss, well, almost everything else.

I mean, it was obvious, wasn't it? It was a fairly mountainous area, against a cliff with an overhang like that wouldn't be a great place to spend the night. I mean, sure, it was going to rain and it gave some protection from the wind, but that wasn't relevant since they were in covered carts. A clearing would be better because it would give three hundred and sixty degree sight against bandits instead of giving us a wall that could be pushed against to prevent escape. Plus, it would be easy to dispose of the carts. Some fake tracks from the top and you could just shatter the carts and make it look like they went over the edge. And the overhang gave them the high ground, allowing scouts to memorize the watch rotation of the guards they had hired for the caravan.

Honestly, I tried to bring it up, but most of them dismissed my concerns saying any bandits strong enough to do that would be taken care of by the shinobi.

Well, I guess they were sort of right about that.

I slipped away at dusk when dinner was being cooked. The forested area made for easy swift travel with how huge the trees were. When I got to the edge I could see with my binoculars a few people scouting already, I also saw a few bows. Well, I should have caught that. Bows were a common bandit weapon. Less risk, more range. It didn't work against shinobi, most were fast enough to catch normal arrows. Which was why you put explosive tags on normal arrows, at least that's how Mitsuki and Minami did it. But against a civilian caravan it would be, if not certain death, then well crippling injury. Especially if there were a lot of them.

There were only two scouts on the ridge. Maybe a dozen others moving about a small camp. No fire, that would have given away their location.

It would be a few hours before they would move, even in the overcast it wasn't dark enough for them to attack completely safely. Well, maybe they might go sooner because of impatience, but if they went through all the trouble to set up on this ridge then they probably would wait until it was completely dark.

Which was why I went ahead and set up to finish this as soon as possible.

It wasn't a great set up honestly, but if I could surprise them it might work. Even if it didn't, I could retreat too. I mean, I didn't want to retreat, it would mean leaving the caravan, but maybe if I just scared them they would just go away and wouldn't hurt anybody. Bandits didn't really do big standing jobs, they were more opportunists.

At least that's what we were always taught.

As I moved along in the sparse shrubbery I had to monitor my breathing so it didn't wasn't as loud in the bush as it seemed in my head. Especially when they walked around. I was under a henge, but those weren't perfect, not really. Kiriko always told me the only perfect illusion was one that happened entirely in the mind, and there was no way I could pull that off. It was easier to go into an actual bush then henge as a pile of leaves, because it didn't add the question of whether or not a rock or hedge was moving about. That kind of made people suspicious.

There weren't many ways I could make an approach, at least normally. The bandits had chosen an excellent place to make camp, with very wide open areas to see for kilometers around. But then, that did mean I got an opportunity when one came near the bush to pee.

The sound of the rustling made him turn, but not many people are on guard with their pants down. I did a quick rotation and lashed out, the rope wrapped around his neck and I let the blade end set before I gave it a yank.

Whoever he was, he wasn't ninja trained because his neck snapped before he hit the ground. I pulled him into the bush quickly and did the henge to take his form.

He was a bit taller than me, but it didn't matter too much. I wound my rope around my wrist before heading to the camp. It wasn't a very flashy weapon, it was little more than a knife tied to a length of thin rope, which was why it had been pretty easy to make on my own. It was also not at all hard to explain why I had it, remove the knife and it was just a normal knife and a normal length of rope. Who wouldn't want to have rope?

As I walked towards the camp I let it trail behind me onto the ground. I didn't speak, but someone caught my eye and raised a hand.

"Hey Han, you find something while you were out?"

I just nodded as I held up the rope. I started swinging it around like I was testing it as I looked at it. Of course it swung just fine, the knife weighed down the rope. It was easier than using a chain, like with a chain staff or a sickle chain, I got bruises every time I tried to use the same tricks with those. There was a light laugh as a few people spectated me swinging the rope, which allowed me to get the momentum up high enough to lash out and grab the nearest one across the chest. I moved forward as I reeled him in, grabbing his back and turning him in front of me between the others. He squawked at the sudden moment as I got an arm around his neck and held him there.

"Sorry," I said it in a light breath as I backed up with him.

"Han, what the hell are you doing? Let him go let him…"

I turned while he was distracted and threw the kunai out with my free hand, it embedded itself in his chest because he wasn't ready for it. Always aim for people when they're talking, they don't expect attacks.

He went down, which made the other five guys in the clearing all attempt to rush me at once. I pulled the rope back and slashed at the guy who tried to get at my back as I kicked the first guy forward. The blade slashed through his chest and across his arm. I swung the rope around my arm and pulled it back to slash back at the one coming around my flank before dashing out of the encirclement.

Pulling my rope free, I started swinging it in an arc over my head as they looked at me more warily now. I didn't like this part of the job, but in the end it was what I did whenever I went, no, had gone on missions with my team.

I had to breathe for a second to push past the flash of pain. Fujiko was gone, just like so many others, but it still hurt, still made me pause, which made it look like an opening as two more tried to rush me.

I sliced the neck of the first and let the rope wrap around my left arm as I brought my knee up to next guy coming and got him between the legs. I winced at his expression but didn't pause as I used how close we were together to grab onto him and turn him to use as a shield again. My timing was fortunate as a blade from another one was put into his back. The man was so startled that he was easily pushed off balance when I ran forward with his dying comrade. As I moved forward an arrow grazed my leg and I turned to see the other six lining up their shots.

I used a flicker to get away and kept going as I heard the arrows coming. I flickered again and got behind a tree before I heard some arrows peppering the ground and with only two thumps that indicated something had hit the tree. They weren't great shots whoever they were, but if you fired enough arrows in a crowd of people it didn't really matter. It wasn't a plan that required much training.

They tried firing in the trees for a minute, I could hear the thumping into the thick wood as I waited. It stopped after about a minute or two when they figured it wouldn't work in the trees, but it took longer before they approached. Sitting there in the gloom of the trees I was kind of afraid that it hadn't worked. Maybe they had just decided to watch the trees because they didn't think they could take me. I hadn't been terribly flashy, but I did have to flicker to get away. Maybe…

I heard the hurried footsteps. The running men moved close together in a group as they moved into the trees, some of them held bows with arrows notched and at the ready scanning to see if they could find me. Well, I guess I needed to get them something to look at.

I really hope these guys were bad shots.

Jumping from the tree line I made sure they saw me go over them. The arrows came behind me and I jumped deeper into the woods. They ran forward, quickly in that direction and…

The crash alerted me to stop and I jumped back around before climbing down the tree and approaching from behind. I saw two of the bandits staring down into the dark pit, stunned and staring at the hole. I walked slowly behind them as I pushed myself at a good angle, then I took a note from Ume's playbook and plowed into both of them shoulder first with a force jump. They both fell into the pit and I jumped back again, landing on the edge as I looked down at the bloody mess.

Spike pits were always a messy affair and I really didn't want to do it like this, but there hadn't been time to set up anything more gentle.

* * *

"Hey get up!"

I pulled the bag I'd put on my eyes to look at the person I was sharing a cart with. I wasn't used to just how bright it was in the Land of Fire in the morning, though it was warm enough for me to see it was mid afternoon. Had I slept in? Maybe, usually I didn't fight alone, took longer than I thought to make sure there were no other bandits walking to ambush. Wish Gonmaru was there, he could check by the vibrations of their feet on the ground. I could only use basic earth jutsu, and that one was at least mid tier when you did it above ground.

I looked at the older rough man I had bribed to share a cart with. He glanced at me, then back at his own supplies that were deeper in the cart. I sat up and looked to see I was blocking the way and scrambled down.

"Sorry." I said, doing a quick bow.

"If you want to apologize help me unload this thing. My nephew was supposed to be here but the good for nothing is probably out sleeping off a night of drinking." The man shook his head.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked at the boxes. Why couldn't they just get some storage scrolls if we're at a ninja village shouldn't we…

"We're here?!"

My startled expression seemed to amuse him as I jumped from the cart to find myself looking up at a giant wall made of an orangish stone.

"Never been to a ninja village before, kid?" The man looked at me with a huff.

"Na, no…" I turned away. "I'm just surprised."

Scanning the area I saw several of the carts also unloading, many more than the original caravan. Must have been at least a hundred different people unloading their wares to sell. Did they just let the cart in without checking it? Or was I not worthy enough of notice for them to wake me upon inspection? It was downright bizarre how easy that was.

"You gonna gawk or are you gonna help me unload? They won't let us stay idle forever, there's a line."

I blinked and looked out to see there was in fact a line of more carts. Goodness, how many people were going to be in the village for the event? Or maybe they were just dropping things off. The chunin exams were probably a big event, though I never thought there'd be so much stuff. Walking over, I tested one of the boxes. I grabbed the side and almost picked it up before I caught myself.

Right, I'm a civilian, can't use chakra to help me move stuff. I regretted that immediately as I huffed against the box, only managing to push it up onto its edge as I slid it across the back of the caravan. What was in here, rocks?

"The hell are you doing boy, wait until I get up there, scrawny kid like you couldn't possibly move that by yourself."

He grabbed the box from the ground and I had to tilt it up, holding the weight up as I got down with it to make sure it didn't crush him.

I never knew how much chakra really helped with this sort of thing until Ume started making us train without it. At first we did so with suppressants and that had been miserable, but I'd gotten the hang of doing so without the drugs. It really was something, especially when compared to the old man. He was old, tan and muscular, probably a farmer or something. He wasn't weak but he had trouble with it too as he strained against the weight.

Still, after twenty minutes we got all the boxes off. I sat on one of them, huffing as I grabbed my water bottle and took a swig. As I did I scanned the area and froze as I saw a man in a blue suit with a green vest heading this way. He had long brown hair and a bandana with a piece of grass in his mouth. He glanced at me with a smile.

"Gonna catch flies like that."

I closed my mouth and tried to speak when the old man did instead.

"Genma you lazy good for nothing, where the heck were you? They nearly totted off my wagon with the goods inside. What would I have done if I couldn't get set up in time for the exams? Why, I should call your mother out here to have a word with you."

"It's good to see you too Juki-oji-san." He twisted the grass in his mouth before letting out a huff. Reaching down, he picked up one of the boxes in his arm and started towards the town. "It's the same place as last time?"

"Of course it is, that's the best place to put the stall. I had to book it specifically in advance though they might have given it away by now with how late we are."

"Yes, yes, I got it. I'll take care of it."

The two of them walked off bickering back and forth and I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding. Right, okay, that was, well, bizarre. I guess, that man was a rank chunin or better and he just let his uncle basically take his ear for being late. Even if they were related I didn't think that would have, no it wouldn't have happened at home. I don't think I'd ever heard anyone talk that way to someone who was clearly a shinobi that way before. At least, not anyone who wasn't also a shinobi. I sat on the crate, just looking in that direction as I assessed my options. If I left now, would that look weird? Would someone chase after me or go looking for me? Would they think I was up to something, well, I was technically, but nothing bad. But I had agreed to help, well, not really agreed to help as I didn't actually say anything but they expected me to help. I couldn't just leave now, what if his nephew got called to do work? He was a shinobi, they must be doing rounds to make sure things were safe, right?

But then, they didn't know what was coming, did they?

I closed my eyes and breathed in and out as I thought about the scroll, the scroll Ume gave me. The scroll that told me what was going to happen here, the exams, the infiltration.

The invasion.

I could tell someone, couldn't I? I could warn them, I was here. But who would believe me? She talked about it, this was still a ninja village. If they wanted that information they'd want more and…

The vision of Ume, laying on the cave floor face down unconscious as we tended to her back wounds hit me. Her back which was beaten red and raw, the burn marks on her wrists nasty and new, the very real possibility she wasn't going to wake.

That could happen to me, if I got caught they might actually torture me. My breath quickened as I gripped my pants leg, oh kami, what was I doing here? I was in a foreign village alone, a foreign village that was going to be invaded. If they found out about me now, or even after the fact, if I couldn't leave what would happen to me? What would I…

"Boy, you feeling alright?"

I forced my face back to normal as I looked up at Juki-san, the old man looking at me concerned.

"I'm alright, just a bit out of breath still." I stood up as I watched the shinobi move boxes again away. "Do you still need help setting up?"

"Awful kind of you to ask, honestly probably better at it than Genma. You'd think someone ninja trained would be more careful, but I think he broke some of the stuff in the other box. Wish I had enough money to bring some movers with me, but it was always gonna be a time crunch."

"Well, I wouldn't want to break anything you worked so hard to bring this far." I said with a light smile.

The man put a hand on my shoulder.

"Good man, um, what was your name again?"

"Yasu sir,"

I said in a easy response as I clenched my fist and unclenched it. It was a technique to make us use nervous energy. I could be scared all I wanted, but I couldn't show it. It would make it way easier to spot me and be caught.

"Yamada Yasu."

"Yamada-san, let's get going. We have to be set up before they start the exams."

* * *

Hishino Juki did in fact have rocks in those crates. They were jade statues, in several different colors, hand carved and a lot of fine work in their detail. He set up a little wooden booth, which we filled with each piece carefully after inspecting each one for nicks and scratches. Unfortunately, there were a few cracked pieces, as well as a bird whose head had fallen off. It was kind of sad to look at really, I wasn't really into trinkets like that but it was clear a lot of work was put into it.

"Ah, that's a shame."

It was a little odd looking, it had a fairly large beak and was light blue with white veins. Juki looked over my shoulder and nodded.

"It is, something small I could fix, but that's not even good for scrap."

"What is it?" I turned to him.

"Kingfisher, it's not a common bird in these parts so I'm not surprised you didn't know. Regardless, they're a popular piece maybe because of their rarity, but also because of what they represent."

"What's that?"

"Peace, they're shy creatures, small too. Only about as big as that statue, they have large beaks but only so they can feed. You can't see one in times of war, they flee from the conflicts, but they're tough little creatures, able to catch and eat fish right out of the pond."

He sat himself onto the small stool he brought with him.

"Do all the statues have meanings?"

"Most, some of them I just carve 'cause people think them pretty, some people are willing to hear the stories, some just think it a nice trinket... Whatever sells, sells, so gotta keep up the demand."

I nodded as I sat there looking at the broken bird. Only the head was really intact, the wings had both been fractured, the foot was all but missing, leaving a cracked uneven chunk. Two really, the pieces all together smaller than the space of my cupped hands.

"You can keep if you like, not much good it's gonna do on the stand having broken merchandise."

"You sure? That seems like a waste."

"Sure, you're a good help. Might take some carving but you can make a necklace or something for a girl you fancy. You look pretty good with your hands, what with those callouses."

He gestured to me and I nodded with a slow smile. He had assumed these were workman calluses, not calluses earned from years training with a weapon.

Well, at least I'd convinced one person I wasn't a shinobi.

* * *

The apartment Shiroe and Kotori lived in was on the third floor of a building that went up to five. It wasn't even the tallest complex I'd seen. It was one of the big boxy buildings I'd seen when I'd entered the village, much taller than the ones at Kirigakure. The actual apartment was only a little bit bigger than the one I had shared with Gonmaru, with the main difference being that it was sectioned off with wooden walls instead of being one large space with only a separate room for the bathroom.

Kotori was the one who answered the door and she shrieked as soon as she did, tackling into me with a wide hug. I held her there as Shiroe moved to the front area that I could see from a glance was the kitchen.

"You're early." She said as she walked forward, dressed in a plain dress and apron.

She looked, older I guess would have been a bit rude to say, but it was what struck me at first. Though not in the worn way, more like in she had the kind of more carefree or open expression some older folks had. When we traveled together she had always been tense, always with a tight expression on her face like she was looking over her shoulder. Now though, that tightness had relaxed and the wrinkles of her skin looked more like something someone would get from laughing. Her dark hair was down instead of in a tight bun that pulled it all out of her face, and her face showed bits of seasoning on it. I sniffed the air and was delighted with the smell of spiced meat.

"That smells amazing."

"Just making some lunch." She said, heading back.

"Join us!" Kotori said, bouncing on her feet as I walked in.

I shrugged off my coat as I headed into the warmer kitchen and set it on a rack. The kitchen wasn't messy, but it showed the normal spots and spills that happened when someone was casually cooking. I usually didn't do clean up, Gonmaru took care of that part because of his, well, distaste for being around smoke.

There was a pot simmering on the stove and a spoon set aside.

"May I?" I looked at Shiroe.

"Go ahead." She said.

Taking a nice sip, I took in a nice blend of spices and herbs I didn't recognize. Probably regional, but they complemented the thick stew well, though.

"Could use some sage."

I glanced around and found a spice rack with neat labels lining the bottles, grabbing one I pinched some in, as well as some other spices to help make sure it didn't overpower the flavor.

Shiroe walked up and took a taste.

"Dang, I have to give some of this to Izumi-san, maybe she'd be less overbearing in her cooking lessons."

"Izumi?" I glanced at her.

"She's an Akimichi I work with, apparently her family runs a restaurant. She's pretty quiet at work, we occasionally talked but then one day she took a sample of my lunch and that night arrived here with a basket of cooking supplies and wouldn't leave until she gave me an entire doctrine about how to season food. Apparently she thought my food was so bland it was criminal, she also gave me that spice rack. She comes by at least once a week to do lessons. It's a bit embarrassing." She said.

"Yeah, but now your food is super tasty. I don't have to ask the other kids at the academy to share their lunches anymore." Kotori said.

"The academy? The ninja academy?" I said before turning to Shiroe. She was frowning deeply.

"Not my choice, Kotori forged my name on the paperwork and brought home fake reports that she bought from the normal children."

Shiroe crossed her arms and looked away.

"I didn't buy, I haggled. I found some pretty rocks and made them into necklaces just like Mitsuki-neesan." Kotori corrected.

I set down the cooking spoon and kneeled down to be closer to her eye level.

"Kotori, you know your mom only wants you to be safe. Why did you go behind her back to go to the ninja academy?"

"The normal school is boring! All they teach is numbers and reading and stuff. I already know that. The ninja academy is way better, and the kids are so fun. There's this girl, if you get close enough to her she hums because she's full of bugs. Then there's a girl with pale eyes, she makes chakra shoot out of her hands! Also, also, you can bring pets to the ninja academy, the bug girl has a giant spider and they let me bring Daikon to the academy so he can hop around and play there and and…"

"Kotori-chan," I said it a little more sternly. "You don't understand, being a ninja isn't a good thing. Sometimes you have to hurt people, sometimes you have to kill people. Sometimes, the people who get hurt or killed, they're your friends. It's not a pleasant life."

"Well, I could just go into the Genin corps, that's where all the students who don't graduate go and they do infiltration work. Or I can go from the academy to the hospital. Didn't Kiriko-neesan do hospital work? That's not dangerous." Kotori said holding out her hands. "I just don't get why people think it's dangerous for me to learn what Daddy did. I don't have to fight if I learn it."

Which was true, unless there was a war, which if Ume was right, and she was a disturbing amount of the time, there would be. I put a hand on my head and looked at Shiroe.

"Did she practice this speech so she could convince you? That was pretty well reasoned out."

"I think she asked some of her academy friends what she should say. Or one of the teachers. I can't make a move to pull her out without it looking suspicious."

Shiroe didn't look happy but couldn't turn a blind eye to Kotori's happiness.

Kotori did look happy to be at the academy, especially with how animated she was when she spoke about it. She at the very least liked being there, probably had friends. She didn't when she was at Kirigakure, her condition of being artificially mute and deaf along with her status as a Kishi isolated her from other children. She had come a long way from that, I knew that much because I used to come watch her with my team. Really, it was only ninja that she interacted with as she grew up, was it a wonder she wanted to be the same?

"Well, for the moment it shouldn't be a problem. Though they're going to stop classes on the exams, aren't they?" I said as I went back to the pot. It was starting to over boil, so I turned down the heat and stirred it a bit.

"In both schools. It'll be good to have you here to babysit Kotori while I'm at work." Shiroe said.

"I don't need a sitter, no one hates us here." Kotori said.

The words were fairly harsh coming from a child. Harsh, but not untrue considering the culture of Kirigakure.

"There will be foreign ninjas in the village Kotori-chan, visitors from other villages." Invaders waiting to strike during the exam.

"I'm sure you're normally perfectly safe here." As safe as you can be in a ninja village.

"Also, how will I know my way around without a guide?" I said with a smile as I forced down the anxiety.

Kotori's face lit up.

"Oh! I can do that. I know so many places around the village, there's this place where they serve great tea and barbecue. Oh, and the training park, there's also the Inuzuka compound, they run their puppies around and…"

I stirred the stew as Kotori gushed about all the places in the village she wanted to take me to. I'd need to talk to Shiroe tonight in private to discuss what was going on, how we were going to do the betting and the results of the exam. Kotori didn't need to know that her new home was going to be attacked, that the people and places she had seemed to become attached to would be in danger. There was nothing we could really do about it, not without looking suspicious and burdening the child with the knowledge would accomplish nothing.

* * *

The next day or so I watched the village during the exams. The first round had begun the previous day but wasn't open for betting. From what the scroll said the first two rounds were a culling process that tested things like nerve, team loyalty and the ability to survive in an enemy infested environment.

It also said that the genin team with the boy in orange would be attacked by an S-Rank ninja and that the Suna team had an unstable jinchuriki which would tilt the results to a more extreme degree than normal.

Thankfully, since it was culling there was no formal betting. I doubted I could get involved if I wanted to. When the second round started a large section of forest was heavily roped off and guarded by several shinobi to prevent civilians and those otherwise not involved in the exam to enter.

The civilians were either unaware or more likely unconcerned at the fact that just outside their village their shinobi were fighting for their lives. It would seem almost cold if I didn't know that this was the same for all chunin exams. I was told once that the chunin exams were a stand in for actual warfare on the mainlands.

Which made me shiver considering I knew an actual war was going on at home. Partially out of disappointment of not going, partially out of relief that I didn't go and wholly out of guilt for feeling both of those things.

I had a mission here, I wouldn't have been sent if it wasn't important. Technically I had three missions, the first was the acquire funds through heavy gambling, the second was to acquire information on the village and Shikako Nara, the former I was already doing, the latter I hadn't had the chance to do yet but would once the second exam finished, the third was to protect Shiroe and Kotori, which was the one with the most importance. I wasn't the best bodyguard of our group, far from it, but I agreed with the assessment that it was necessary. Things could get ugly and whatever happened to Konoha, if things turned for the worse I was supposed to get them out.

It was a cold thing to do, but I could do it. As I walked with her through the streets, the bright smile on the small former Kishi's face assured me it would be the right thing to do. I wasn't the bravest warrior, but I knew that her father died so my family would survive so it would be, well, wrong to not return the favor.

* * *

The announcement of the preliminaries didn't cause a huge rush for the betting booth. Apparently they usually didn't do them, but when I got to the betting building there were some people already there as they all looked up at a black box showing the students lining up for the first fight. I'd seen one of them only once before, even tested it to show that it worked when we bought it in the Land of Lightning but I'd never seen one actually active. It was strange looking into it, like watching a painting move. But when I saw the two tiny figures on the screen standing across from each other I held back my awe and went to the booth.

"Is it too late to put in a bet for the first match?"

The man looked at me.

"Hasn't gotten far enough, what're you putting in?"

"3,000 ryu on the Uchiha." I said as I pulled the money out of my pocket.

It seemed like a large bet, but the Uchiha clan was apparently a local favorite and this was all of my funds for today. It wouldn't do to carry too much money on me yet.

It wasn't a long match, but I didn't win much because I wasn't given a good margin for odds. The next match wasn't one written down, so I guessed. I guessed right when the Suna nin won. That made a few of the locals mad, the man in the booth looked slightly suspicious.

"Good call on that."

"I didn't know much about either of them." I said, shrugging my shoulder.

Next up was the blonde Suna girl versus the double bun weapon girl. I put a 2,000 bet on the weapon girl, I knew she would lose but it would look suspicious if I won every single bet I put down. The next bet I did lifted a couple of eyebrows when I bet on the kid in orange, Naruto Uzumaki.

"That's an awful lot of money on that kid."

"Really?"

It was 12,000 ryo out of the 15,000 ryo I had, including my winnings and the money I brought with me.

"I don't see why. Besides, it's the best odds I've seen yet. Isn't it worth the risk if he wins?"

It was 4 to 1 in favor of the Inuzuka.

"It's your money." The man said dismissively as the match played out.

Though he seemed less dismissive as the result came to Naruto's victory. He wasn't the only one surprised, the entire room was quiet at the result certainly, more so than the other matches. Some of them were staring at the screen, some of them staring at me. It made me self concious before the next match came on.

The 48,000 ryo pot from his match was the most I made that day. I got the rest of the matches, making some more money from the more evenly set match of the Akimichi and the Aburame. I didn't bet on the Hyuuga match, commented it didn't feel right to bet on family fighting each other. I was glad I didn't, I didn't want to profit on what happened in that match, especially with how brutal he was. They were family, they shouldn't have gone after each other like that, but then I should have known better really.

The Kishi were family after all, but they caused what happened at the wall to get at Hiroshi.

I won the bet on the match between the taijutsu shinobi and the unstable jinchuriki but it was not any less painful to watch even on the little display screen. From the fact he couldn't be seen when he moved he was probably faster than Ume and physically probably almost as strong as Gonmaru if he was moving with that much weight on him. Despite that he was still straight up crushed by the red haired sand ninja. Guess it goes to show how unfair things are, if someone so strong could easily be pushed aside.

* * *

I found out Shikako Nara was sent to the hospital after the ending of the preliminary round, it wasn't that hard to find out since several genin were. Though in her case, since she didn't actually fight it was most likely injuries obtained during the second exam proper. Regardless, I didn't make any move to see her at the hospital. I didn't know anybody there, so there was no excuse to visit. Besides, I didn't think I could glean anything of interest from looking at medical charts, at least I wouldn't know what to look for in terms of that. I could do medical jutsu but I didn't have the full medical background to call myself anything like an expert. I wasn't even qualified to be a nurse. When it came to medical knowledge I was right in the middle of our group, I knew just a bit more than Minami, Chojuro and Gonmaru, but less than Mitsuki or Ume, and much less than Kiriko.

Instead I just hung out in front of a cafe that was off the main branching path from the hospital. There were several of them, as well as restaurants, shops and food stands. It was all so very colorful. There were food stands and shops at home of course, but they were mostly second hand stores or rickety stands where tired people ate noodles in silence. A world's difference from the well stocked stands, the full bustling restaurants with people laughing and telling stories even during the day. The stores were different, full of bright colorful things, all bright, shiny and new, not like the dull colors and chipped paint at the stores at home. The only place that was even remotely similar to the shops at home was the food market and the flower shop.

Which, as I traced my gaze down to the flower shop, I saw my target walking down the street. As she passed the flower shop I saw the girl from the flower shop run from the counter, grab her by the shoulders and pull her inside in a rough manner.

I nearly jumped before I realized the body language didn't suggest hostility. Right, calm down, this is Konoha, people aren't just kidnapped off the streets.

Turning back to my tea and light lunch I watched with my peripheral vision before the blonde girl disappeared deeper into the shop and Shikako Nara was manning the front. That was an interesting development. I probably wouldn't have many other chances to interact directly in an informal manner. It was as good an excuse as any, even though it defied the perimeters you could get a better read on someone if you actually spoke to them at least once.

Still, I didn't get up immediately, I had to pay my bill first.

After I finished my tea and paid I headed into the flower shop. Shikako Nara waved a hand in greeting but didn't leave her place at the register immediately. I didn't know much about flowers, apparently the girls in support company were taught ikebana when they were doing our courses on basic business practice among non shinobi. Mostly how business contracts work, how to make contacts within established organizations, how to show due respect and such. I found it strange that was the specialty for male shinobi, lord knows Mitsuki was way better at business analytics than I was. But then, apparently all female shinobi in support company were supposed to be able to pose as geisha. It was a bit absurd when you considered that Minami was also support company. Still, I could appreciate the aesthetics, or at least I could understand they'd look nice in a vase.

Pointing at a small bouquet I looked up at her and asked.

"How much does this cost?"

"3,000 ryo." She said as she moved from behind the counter.

I glanced at her, but forced my eyes from doing a full up and down, instead taking in the sight with a level gaze. She had some brown shorts, a black undershirt and a green jacket on. Underneath that was a mix of solid fabric and ninja mesh. She had only metal backed gloves, a thigh pouch and on her shoulder was the tied ninja headband. That and the braided hair pegged her for someone who if not specialized in close combat, was someone who wasn't unfamiliar to it. A lot of kunoichi would wear clothing that could pass for civilian at first glance, hell Ume dressed like she was the pampered daughter of a wealthy or noble family with the bright layered dresses she preferred, but that wasn't the approach here. She was a shinobi, she wasn't hiding that from anyone.

"Really? There's not that many flowers." It was maybe ten at most as I turned back to the display.

"It's because of rarity, those lilies aren't grown anywhere but the Yamanaka greenhouses, at least in the Land of Fire." She said. "Looking for something a little cheaper?"

"Just wanted to get some flowers for my cousin. I'm staying over with her for the exams." I said as I looked at the display again.

"Shinobi family?" She said absently.

I bit down my expression and kept my voice neutral. Couldn't deny it too quickly, would seem suspicious.

"Nah, my dad sent me to scope out for a booth."

"Oh did you buy a market stall?" She replied.

"Not this exam, the business is still new. He didn't know if it would be worth the investment." I said as I leaned down and picked up a colorful arrangement of similar shaped flowers. They looked the same, roughly.

"How much are these?"

"2,000 ryo, so you're from a merchant family. What do you sell?" She said as she examined the flowers.

"Electronics, mostly." I said. "Are these more common? I think they look better than the other bouquet."

"Yeah, cosmos are pretty common. They're supposed to symbolize love, but also stability, modesty and tranquility. They're fairly popular." She said, looking at them.

"They're all cosmos? That's a lot of colors for one type of flower." I replied.

The flowers at home were usually just one or two colors for each type.

"You don't go to a lot of flower shops." She replied with a small smile.

"No, but I thought I should be polite and get some sort of gift. I just, don't know them that well, we only spent time together in the loosest sense and even then it seemed more professional than anything."

Which was true, I knew almost nothing about Shiroe and Kotori. Team Three did the babysitting gig way more often than my team had, never mind I always felt uncomfortable going to the Kishi compound.

"Well, it's a nice thought. It would certainly look nice in a vase." She said.

I actually blinked.

"I don't even know if they have any vases." Putting a hand on my head I turned towards Shikako. "Do you?"

"We do, you want me to ring one up? It'll cost a little more." She said.

"Huh, that's true." I said, holding my chin. "I think I'll look around a bit more, see what's the most cost effective."

I hung around for a little longer, but ended up getting the cosmos, money wasn't really an issue, but it was a good thing to talk about. I was heading out when the blonde storekeep returned with an older male version of herself, probably her father, who I saw through the window.

I headed back to Shiroe's apartment, put the flowers on the table then got ready to go out again. With a wet comb I changed how I parted my hair, put on a pair of glasses (real glasses, false glasses would be easy to spot, but it wasn't so bad a prescription that it would affect my eyesight too badly) and a different outfit. Different shoes, different pants and shirt, as well as a light jacket that made my frame look much less bulky than the overshirt I had on before. The scheme was a light tan and green as opposed to the dark blue and black, I also practiced my posture, pulling myself more into myself, overall making myself look more meek and unsure of myself, basically like Chojuro. I needed to keep a less steady gait, it would actually be easier to pretend that everything surprised me rather than that nothing did.

"Wow! You look so different!" Kotori said as she walked into the bathroom.

"You think so?" I replied.

"Yeah, could I do that?" She said as she went to the bathroom and started fiddling with the wet comb. "I bet I could surprise my friends."

"I'm not sure, I was told it's because I'm really plain." I said in response.

"Ah, that's true, if I look like mommy I'll be too pretty. Darn, that would have been cool." She said.

"That's what they teach henge for." I said. "I have to head out."

"Get me some candy?" She said as a question.

"Sure."

I guess I looked pretty different, but I knew it was me. Though it was still a different style, which would probably throw people off. I really wasn't sure if it would work with anybody, I mean I'd probably still recognize any of my other siblings even if they changed their hair, clothing, or gait. I could probably have spotted Gonmaru or Ume from a kilometer away with how distinctive they were.

I headed back out and started looking again. I found Shikako Nara again, well, I really didn't find her but her friends. The girl with the pink hair caught my eye through the wooden frames of the restaurant. They seated me at the bar when I came in alone because of the small crowd of people heading in as the lunch hour really started up.

I used the hearing jutsu to key in on their conversation as I ate my second lunch for today. I didn't look in their direction but I saw them leave before I got my check. I didn't get the entire conversation but I could tell that despite not being in the finals herself she was helping out her friends and was going to try and check out the grounds for the finals with her friends.

Pretty normal all things considered. That was the main vibe I got from her. She looked like a ninja, but for all accounts she seemed like a normal girl. One who wanted her friends to succeed or could talk to customers pretty normally. She had a good amount of sense, at least tactically, in wanting to check the battlegrounds before the matches, but again she was a ninja, that was a fairly obvious thing to do. It was a start, but it wasn't really enough to make any real guesses to her overall personality. I wouldn't try any more moves to observe her today. Even if I could blend in tailing someone to gain information about them personally wasn't something you could do all at once, it was something you had to do slowly over time to see how they reacted under different stimuli. Thankfully I had plenty of time to do that.

* * *

"So what's the deal with the boy in orange?"

Sitting at the dinner table with Shiroe and Kotori I saw Shiroe actually pause from eating. Kotori didn't, reaching out with her chopsticks.

Her voice sounded incredulous as she spoke.

"The boy in oran…"

Kotori spoke, thinking her mother didn't understand.

"You know mama, the one who runs around yelling dattebayo, and hangs out with Konohamaru and his friends, and turns into pretty nak…"

"Yes Kotori thank you, I know who you're talking about." Shiroe cut her off at that part before turning towards me. Her eyes were concerned.

"Why are you asking, Yasu-san?"

"Because he's a," I actually paused and looked down at Kotori. "Because he's special clearly, but everyone keeps treating him like he's, well, a nuisance."

"By special you mean..." She said again, looking strained.

"Well, maybe the fact that he's able to summon several dozen solid shadow clones at the age of twelve."

Which was a feat that most chunin and jonin couldn't pull off, considering the drain of doing that jutsu using water as a medium.

"His last name is Uzumaki."

A famous and prominent shinobi clan.

"And looking at the monument he looks like he might be related to the fo…"

"Don't." Shiroe held up a hand and looked around.

Standing from the table she moved to close all the windows, checked to make sure the door was locked and walked out with a heavy comforter.

"If we're gonna talk about this, sit on the couch."

"What's so interesting?"

Kotori was interested now as she looked up from her rice bowl.

"Kotori, we'll discuss this later, for now finish your food while we talk." Shiroe said sternly.

Kotori tried to argue but Shiroe gave her a sharp look and she turned back to her food.

I walked over and sat on the couch, it was a small low one, the two of us fit on it and she brought the comforter over our heads. It was an old chakraless trick to muffle sound. It might have been a bit on the paranoid side, but Shiroe was technically an illegal missing nin in a ninja village.

She spoke under the comforter and said.

"Look, I've asked the same questions and from what I can tell, people aren't just not allowed to talk about it, they're forbidden."

"What do you mean forbidden?" I said, a little concerned.

"I mean, I was taken aside at work and they threatened my job if I brought it up again. You didn't think I didn't notice the way he was treated? Everyone notices, but they won't talk about it. I think there's actually a degree about it where the results of revealing it is considered high treason." She said.

"About his... passenger." I said.

"About everything about his past, his parentage, his home situation, even his birthday." She put a hand on her head.

"It seems like most of the village is trying to forget he even exists and those who try to push against that are quickly and harshly warned to fall in line, especially those who work for the government. The only people who can get away with it are small business owners, like that ramen stand."

"But he's, he's…"

"I know." She looked down. "He's potentially the strongest ninja in the village and probably the heir to not one but two powerful lines."

"Can't you do anything? You live here." I said, looking at her concerned face.

She shook her head.

"Can't toe that line, at least not more than I already have. It'd be suspicious, I can't have Kotori do it either. Children are actively discouraged from being around him."

"But didn't Kotori say a kid named Konohamaru did?" I said.

"Who's going to tell the Hokage's grandson what he can and can't do?" Shiroe said, looking straight at me.

That was a good point. But still.

"That seems so, so," I said. "It's cruel, he must have been so lonely."

"You've been watching, he has his team. That's usually all shinobi need most the time. You guy's case notwithstanding." She said again. "Look, don't ask about it in town, don't even mention it. It's not great, but he's not alone."

For a moment I sat there and closed my eyes. His team, how long would that last as a shinobi? All it took was one little slip, one mistake. Just like what happened to Fujiko. It made me wonder.

"Shiroe, what happened to your team?"

"Nothing," She said lowly. "I think they teach at the academy now, both of them, my sensei probably went back to ANBU, though I don't know for sure. I wasn't really allowed to keep in contact with them when I was promoted to chunin."

"Wasn't allowed?" I said, confused.

"Heirs aren't encouraged to be overly friendly with their teammates."

The smile on her face was sadder than anything I could think of. The information stunned me enough that I didn't even have a follow up question. Not then, not for that night. I didn't know if it was intentional, but it left me mute for the rest of the night as I went over it in my head.

How did a seven family heir become a branch level clerk?

* * *

Watching Shikako Nara was fairly hit and miss an endeavor, if only because I couldn't actually follow her around. I mean, I could, but that would have been suspicious and being in a ninja village someone would have noticed eventually. It was easier and safer really to just hang around the village and keep my eyes open. If I saw her, I could note her location, listen in if I was close enough and plan to be close to where she was going next so I could observe her after changing into a new outfit. I didn't do this all the time, of course. When I saw her meet one of the sannin through the boy in orange I was eating at the ramen stand when she came by (the one Shiroe told me about) for lunch.

There were also places I couldn't follow her to, logically, for example I couldn't go into the district where her family compound was. I didn't even attempt to enter or even get close to it once I marked it off and when she headed that direction I didn't attempt to follow. The same was with the hospital, which of course I couldn't go to for the same reason I couldn't go into the hospital to see her the first time. Basically I stayed out of areas I had no business being in as a civilian, which while limiting wasn't too much of the village as a whole to prevent me from seeing her almost every day.

Well, when she was actually in the village.

She left the village entirely every so often, which I found out was to visit her teammate who was training. Of course I couldn't follow, so I didn't, instead I went out with Kotori on those days to see the sights, sample the local food and visit market stalls.

There was a wide selection of, well, everything. From food, to clothing, to accessories or trinkets. Smells I'd never smelled, materials I'd never seen, all on display, all for sale. It was tempting, oh so tempting to grab some of everything to bring back. Not to just have but to work on, to recreate to make a new part of what everyone wanted for our own land. Really what traveling has taught me about the culture of the Land of Water was, we really didn't have much of one, at least not in terms of richness, or color.

Everything was old, everything was used, everything was, was, grey. Grey like the mist, grey like the rice and millet, grey like the stone of the concrete that created the foundations. There was no decoration in Kirigakure, no fancy stone work, or moldings. It would all get washed away by the storms, as would any paint applied to it. For shinobi it was expected because we were supposed to be functional, for everyone else, excluding the Seven Families, it was because they were poor. Most people in the Land of Water were poor, most people didn't have time or space for things like artwork, statues people had for good luck, or clothing in bright colors or any real decoration.

It put a bit of context into why Ume insisted on colorful things. Most of us wore faded colors or dark clothes but Ume wore bright pink and rich purples. Most of us used functional things but Ume had bright painted appliances in bright yellows, she got us all our own colored mugs even if they were second hand and repainted them so they wouldn't be faded. She made Kiriko a hair band of bright colored cloth, helped Mitsuki redye her clothing, drew pictures and put them in frames for us to hang around our apartments. Even her food was colorful. She showed me how to make rice balls into the shape of animals and made brightly colored sauces and jellies to decorate our food. I didn't know if it was an indirect defiance or just something she developed a taste for after leaving the village the first time for her chunin exams, but when I thought about it, it was nice to have just those bursts of color in the otherwise drab Kirigakure.

Here nothing she did would have stood out, really. If I'd come straight here from there it probably would have been too much for me to process.

Nothing here was grey, drab or dull, or at least it wasn't until something different happened to Shikako Nara.

* * *

I don't know what happened to her, the previous day was a bit more exciting than normal. I got to witness her almost blow herself up then run off to get her friend. I didn't follow them far because the sannin wasn't far behind where the boy in orange was. Instead I called it a day and went home. The next day however, she had somehow become... empty.

It was disturbing to look at even in passing, even more unnerving to see her eat. There was no smelling the food as it came off the grill, no anticipation as it was picked up, no dipping it into sauce to help with taste, just basic mechanical movements with no sense or appreciation, pick up piece, bite, chew, then swallow. Like she was doing paperwork or writing an assignment, not eating tenderly cooked meat off a grill. I would have been afraid of being revealed but I was not the only person staring. Everyone who saw her, from her team, to the server, to other people in other booths, were startled.

It was the only thing worse than hearing her speak, which was downright disturbing. There was no inflection at all, it reminded me of Mitsuki, but Mitsuki added some tone either to the beginning or ends of her words. Or she had expressions, small as they were, that hinted at what she was thinking. But there was no tone, no expression either like there was a radio in her mouth and that's where the sound was coming from, not an actual human. I actually left before they did because it unnerved me so much to be there.

I didn't watch her for the rest of the day because I couldn't bring myself to. The next day she left the village, which made me thankful for the excuse to not attempt my mission. Kami, I had nightmares just thinking about it. I didn't even know why, it wasn't the scariest thing I'd ever seen, not even the scariest thing I'd ever felt. The demon's chakra got that beat, but even as scared as I had been that seemed more natural, more natural than that. The demon chakra from the boy in orange had been suffocating but also angry, which considering what happened on the bridge was normal.

This wasn't anger, or grief, or anything that seemed human. It was just, it was a shadow in an empty shell.

I didn't observe her at all for the next few days, I couldn't bring myself to do it for fear of seeing that again. However, my fear wasn't founded because she was normal again, well, normal for her. But it soothed the fear just a good bit to see that she wasn't, wasn't like that anymore. It meant it was temporary, that it probably wouldn't happen again, hopefully, or if it did I wouldn't have to see it again.

* * *

The day of the third exam the village was almost empty, it wasn't even for the reason I expected. The moment we woke up there were shinobi at our door, I nearly panicked and ran out but Shiroe answered them and they addressed certain codes. We weren't the only ones visited. The civilians were being led in groups away from their homes, away from the stadium and towards the mountain. I could have slipped away but I couldn't leave Shiroe and Kotori, not when I didn't know what was happening.

We were herded by our groups into several entrances of a building that looked like an office, but revealed several staircases that went downwards. We got to a large room with thick stone pillars, bunks built into the walls. There were no windows, but there were a couple of televisions being rolled in. It didn't take long for me to realize we were in an evacuation shelter. It must have been built either into or under the mountain the village had on the far side, because everything was pure stone. It was quite impressive and I didn't even think this was the only level of the shelter. As we pulled together and went down lights started clicking on in the dark shelter and some people were bringing out blankets, chairs and other simple things to make the place more comfortable.

It didn't ease the tension of the crowd though.

Once everyone was inside a man in a chunin vest came forward, he was fairly plain. There were one or two more chunin hanging around.

"Alright, good morning everyone, now I know you're all confused. Or maybe not. I know it's early, lots of you are on vacation or owners of businesses, well I'm sorry to inform you today will not be the big business day you thought it would be."

There were murmurs through the crowd but he held up a hand.

"The truth is, there is a threat on the chunin exams from a yet unidentified foe."

Someone told them? Or maybe more like they figured it out on their own.

"Because of that, we've brought all noncombatants here where we can protect you from any attempts on the village. If anything happens where we think there might be a threat to any of you here there's several passages out of here that will take you out of the village to a fortifiable location, but we don't believe that it'll come to that."

He said it with a smile trying to reassure everyone, but that didn't stop the nervous energy in the air.

"Now, of course you all came to see the exams, so we've brought several tvs so you can observe them. There's also a teller for betting, in an hour breakfast will be brought in as provided by the Akimichi, lunch will be later as well. You all know the protocols for command should there be any emergencies, there will be several shinobi acting as guards. Now I know this isn't the most comfortable of circumstances, you will be protected in the event of any interruptions of the village and once we have cleared the village of threats we'll lead you all up and into safety."

The chunin said this and several shinobi wheeled around small televisions towards walls. People started chattering back and forth as an air of tension started to swell in the room. I sat with Shiroe and Kotori and looked at them.

"The protocols." I looked at her.

"Listen to any shinobi who directs you into action. Well, any shinobi that's from Konoha. There's an entire system for emergencies, they do drills for them at least once every six months. If they thought that it was a serious threat they would have had us leave the village entirely." She held Kotori close to her chest. "How bad do you think it'll be?"

"I don't know, everyone's so tense, though." I said, looking around.

"That's probably because this hasn't happened for more than a decade."

A woman who was not far from us said. She was middle aged, and had a teenage daughter with her.

"In fact, the last time we were brought into the shelters was…" She trailed off but visibly shuddered.

More than a decade ago, but what happened… Oh, right, that.

"They're talking about the kyuubi?" I whispered to Shiroe.

"Probably," She whispered back. "A lot of people are scared, this'll bring back a lot of bad memories if this was where they were put last time. Probably why they're taking so many steps to make people extra comfortable."

I nodded as I looked around. A lot of the older crowd did seem uncomfortable, which made the kids uncomfortable in turn. There was trust sure, but that didn't mean they weren't worried for the very real possibility that something bad was going to happen. The fact that I knew it was justified didn't make me feel any better.

As time went on though, people started getting, not exactly comfortable, but more a bit more social. People who knew others found each other and started talking. Some of the more enterprising individuals who had thought to bring some of their wares had set up tiny displays on the floor. It wasn't many, but people came to look at some of them. It made the mood more tolerable beyond the impending sense of dread when the food came out.

Some people still weren't comfortable enough to move to eat, but it smelled fantastic from the other side of the room where I saw some people setting it up. As a line formed for the buffet style meal I noticed the servers were in this village's version of an ANBU uniform. It actually made me pause to stare.

I tried my best not to make eye contact behind the mask as I went down the line and found my place with Shiroe. She probably saw my expression and glanced at the line.

"ANBU act as a substitute for the local military police in Konoha when they aren't doing duties outside the village." She said between bites of food.

"But, they're ANBU." I said like that explained it.

ANBU was, well, it was the secret operations of any ninja village. Assassinations, information gathering, tailing, hunting missing nins, protecting high priority targets, it was the height of skill and discretion that got you to the position of ANBU. They were the shadow of the more visible active ninja doing jobs that even normal ninjas couldn't do without some scrutiny. Except here, there was an ANBU, standing behind a station, serving rice.

"I know, but from what I heard, they were the best fit after what happened to the, well, the clan who previously served as the military police." She glanced around, and spoke more softly. "The Uchiha."

"People don't like to talk about that either." I said.

"It's not forbidden." She said "Just, uncomfortable."

"What is?" Kotori said, sitting down with her own plate.

"The blanket." Shiroe said before scooting over to let her daughter sit.

"Oh, that's easy to fix," She said as she folded the blanket a bit to make a cushioned lump.

"Nice and soft." She smiled as she sat and started eating her food.

I wasn't sure if she didn't know we were lying, or if she was just ignoring it. Maybe she just couldn't read the inflection, she had been deaf for most of her life. Not that it mattered now, the tone of the conversations eased for some of the people as the food was served. Though others got more restless as the day went on. Attention was only really diverted when the televisions were turned on, signaling the start of the exams.

There was actually a small wooden booth set aside for betting with a man behind it. The set-up was explained that while money would be taken through the booth, winnings would be given out in vouchers that could be taken to the bank. There were two ANBU standing on either side of the booth, probably to prevent anyone from doing something stupid.

There was a small betting booth citing the single elimination odds for each match. Looking at them I raised an eye at Shiroe without actually vocalizing my incredulousness. The books weren't fancy, they were just the name of the subject, a number set next to them. The number next to them was their set odds against their opponent. The first round of matches were already decided and most of them weren't wildly different, even the Uchiha vs the Sand Jinchuriki wasn't that different, though it was in the sand ninja's favor. The exception was for the first match of the first round.

The first name was Neji Hyuga, betting range 1 out of 2, which meant you could only double up with that bet. On the other side of the line past the vs was Naruto Uzumaki, whose betting range was 1 out of 10, which meant that they actually set his winning capability as so low that it would be a ten fold return if he did in fact win.

As if an echo of the booklet the people lined up to make their bets. When I came to the front of the line I was a bit self concious with my small case. Setting it down on the counter, I looked at him, then the others.

"Alright, how much are you betting?" He said.

"500,000 ryo on Naruto Uzumaki."

I said softly as I pulled out the stacks from the case. The amount surprised the people around me, but the man didn't hesitate as he took the stacks.

"Alright 500,000 ryo on Hyu…"

"No," I said simply. "Naruto Uzumaki, 500,000 ryo on Naruto Uzumaki."

There was a pause as the man looked at the money. He was a thin man, wearing glasses which he took a moment to adjust before looking at me.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." I said, sounding a bit more self concious as people around me were taking notice. "All of it, on Naruto Uzumaki to win. The odds are 1 to 10, right?"

"That is correct, the scale was set for a reason. It is quite a risk you're taking." He said.

"He won his first fight." I said, glancing around.

I didn't think that convinced him as he picked up the stacks and started counting each one out before confirming the amount. It was handed to a shinobi who stored it away in a scroll.

"Alright, know there will be a cut taken from any and all winnings, but otherwise may fortune favor your decisions."

He said, nodding as he handed me the receipt for the transaction. It was what he said to everyone but I couldn't help but think he was a bit incredulous when he said it to me. Though I suppose it wasn't any less incredulous when he saw who was behind me.

Kotori was just tall enough that she could rest her chin on the booth. As she walked up, she held up her own pouch of money.

"5,825 ryo on Naruto Uzumaki to win!" She said it loudly enough that no one could have mistaken it.

"Miss, aren't you a little young to be gambling?" The man looked down at her, a little more amused.

"No way! I heard that Tsunade-hime would gamble all the time when she was my age." She said, her hand pressing down on the money.

The man let out a bark of laughter while looking down.

"As great as Senju Tsunade-hime is, I don't think that's one of the traits young girls should emulate. Especially with her luck."

"I'm not betting on her luck, I'm betting on Naruto. I bet he's super lucky." She said.

There was actually a couple of people looking a bit less amused and more uneasy.

"Well, I understand your eagerness but there are rules and other people in line."

"Just put it down as a side bet for me." I said. "A separate voucher wouldn't be too much trouble for that amount?"

"Probably not, no." The man conceded. He wrote out the receipt and handed it to Kotori, who held it in both hands.

She bounced as we headed away to the screens. I leaned down next to her as we walked to the tvs and whispered.

"You probably shouldn't have done that, it makes you look suspicious."

"I don't know why, oni-san believes in Naruto, why shouldn't I?" She whispered back.

Probably because most of us didn't actually know why we were supposed to believe in Naruto Uzumaki. I knew now that I spent time watching him that despite the potential he wasn't a fantastic shinobi, he wasn't even a good shinobi. Though he didn't deserve the amount of, distrust or maybe just isolation, given to him nothing he'd done really suggested he was much more than another jinchuriki. Sure, that alone made him special, but I didn't know what the standard for them was here. After all, Yagura was the only jinchuriki who was ever recorded as a village leader. Really, their only trust in Naruto was really just an offshoot in their trust in Ume, who was in all sense of the words cheating in that regard.

Still, I didn't voice that as we stood with a crowd at the television as the first match started. It took some doing to get into a position where I could actually see what was happening. Kotori couldn't see either until I let her get on my shoulders. But it wasn't a very long match. From what I could tell, it was, well, solid bunshin, transformation and the fact that the Hyuuga didn't have any counter for it other than that spin attack which must have taken a lot of chakra to do. I mean, sure, in a short battle it would be a great counter against mass ranged attacks, but if he couldn't close the distance or attack from a distance all they'd have to do was bring more arrows than he had spins.

When it ended, the field had cleared and as it turned out the original Naruto hadn't even fought the Hyuuga. It was all clones. Which I'm not sure what was more surprising, that the technique for solid bunshin was actually flexible enough that no one would actually notice they were talking to the replacement or that he had the patience to spend an entire match inside a tree transformed into a kunai.

Regardless of anything else, the results were clear as the announcement was made. Kotori actually cheered from her place on my shoulders, as did some of the more invested watchers of the match, but there was still confusion. Still, I didn't hesitate to make my move to the desk with my receipt. The man was staring at me as I held it forward before reaching out to take it.

"Quite a risk that."

"Well worth it." I said as he filled out the voucher and double checked it.

I leaned forward to make sure the number was right. It was and he finished it with an official stamp to notarize it. He then put it in an envelope.

"Congratulations on your win, sir." He said.

"Me too, me too, do mine!" Kotori said from her perch on my shoulders.

"And you too, young lady."

He did the same for her and handed her the envelope. I walked her back to a very annoyed looking Shiroe.

"You're going to get her into some bad habits." She said, looking at Kotori.

"But it was a sure thing, no way he would put that much money down otherwise." She said. "Besides, now I can get a nice new set of kunai instead of the dull ones they give us at the academy."

"You aren't using battle ready kunai in the house." She said sternly before reaching up and picking the small girl off my shoulders.

I looked at her, then the shinobi as well as the people looking at me for the strange bet. It was more attention than I wanted as I looked at Shiroe. I leaned in.

"I'm gonna head to the restroom before the next match begins."

She nodded and let me go. It was a code phrase for I was going to change clothes and I wasn't going to hang out with them for the rest of the time. I didn't expect us to be in such a public place for betting, but now I'd need to be more subtle about it. There was also the fact that I had a very large amount of money on an unclaimed voucher and while I didn't think I'd be targeted in a crowd, some more opportunistic people might attempt to note my appearance so they could try and mug me later. So I needed to change appearance and distance myself from Shiroe and Kotori, for their safety and mine.

Most people didn't seem to notice I was gone, but then most of them were transfixed by the screens. For the most part I really didn't get why. True, I knew the results ahead of time, mostly, though I'd never attended one myself, but I didn't know why civilians were so interested.

It was easy enough to see it as an information gathering exercise for shinobi. To see what the other villages had for the next generation, and for people who could afford it, what villages had to offer in terms of taking assignments. I knew that each stage was supposed to test different aspects of shinobi. The first being a test of commitment, the second being a test of active field work while working on a team, the third being a test of the ability to contend with people as an individual, but I didn't know why it was interesting to them. They were basically sparring after all, we did that all the time at home. I'd sparred with my teammates, my platoons, in groups or as an individual and it wasn't that interesting to see.

It's not like being good at one on one fights was something that common in actual ninja work. Ninja worked as teams, the entire system was built on the idea of squads fighting or working together to meet an objective. Usually if a shinobi has been drawn into such a battle it's because something has gone terribly wrong and while it was good that they could hold their own in one on one battles it wasn't likely the other ninja would just fight them one on one. If you drew away a single ninja you wouldn't just throw one fighter at them in hopes that would be enough. That would be strategically and logically unsound, especially with shinobi you had no previous gauge of their ability and skill. If you ever got into such a situation it would be better to run away, hide or regroup, something all ninja are trained to do, especially with their basic techniques, not fight some unknown in the hopes that you somehow have the right combination of skills to take them down.

However, it didn't seem like the civilians knew or cared about it. This was a spectacle for them, a bettable spectacle at that.

I made my bets for the next matches. Two of them weren't accounted for in the ratings, so I had to guess. Luckily for me, I guessed correctly. I had the rundowns of the people fighting, I knew the sand kunoichi was a dedicated wind user with strong mobility and push against the information gathering specialist leaf kunoichi. I also knew that the Nara were very intelligent and good at field control, while the Aburame had advantages to range and the ability to drain chakra, the Nara won out. I changed clothes before the next match. I'd put a heavy sum on them to compensate for the fact the odds weren't as good as the next match. When I got back I noticed the match was the one that was flagged.

That was, the match between the sand jinchuriki and the Uchiha.

I edged my way to the back of the crowd as I moved away from the booth. I wouldn't be making a bet on this match, because I knew the match wouldn't have a proper end. It was during this match that there would be an interruption, during this match that the invasion would begin.

Shiroe knew it as well, and though I couldn't see her likely had Kotori nearby. Only the little girl didn't know what was going to happen. There was no point in worrying her, especially since she wasn't trained to mask her feelings.

From the back of the room I looked at the screen, it was normal at first. The match was progressing, people gasping and looking at it. I couldn't make it out, all I could make out was when there was a buzzing and the screen went dark.

There was silence in the crowd, which had previously been cheering at some triumph on the screen. A moment later there was a bang, then a crumple. Something was happening outside.

Things became noisy again almost immediately, people rushing around, finding their friends or family in the crowd. I let the panic come out there, glancing around frightfully. I needed to look like the crowd, it wasn't hard to act, I was frightened, I was unsure and I was looking. Just not for what the other people were looking for. I was counting the exits, the shinobi in the room and glancing through the crowd for Shiroe and Kotori.

There were only two exits that I could see, but I doubted a bunker wouldn't have another way out for safety. Some people went to the stairs but were stopped by the ANBU, who were doing their best to comfort the civilians and keep order. It seemed to be working, in the sense no one was trampling each other, but there were explosions outside as we waited there. Some one after the other, some with long spaces between them. Each gap in time spent trying to comfort was undone with a new explosion, especially if it sounded close.

I kept to the wall while this happened, partially to not be meshed in the wave of nervous and jumpy people. I wasn't the only one. It seemed to be the place for people who had no one else to huddle with nervously. It was mostly some older folks, but a few middle or late teens were mixed in too, maybe visitors or merchants. They stayed near the walls as the vibrations continued, but there was a lull in the fighting that made us pause.

In that lull, the shinobi almost had everything under control, everyone was almost calmed enough to not be screaming or jumping at every little sound. We almost thought we were safe.

Then the rumbling started.

I didn't spend a lot of time underground, but I knew what that sound was because of my time working with Gonmaru. It was a very specific sound, a sort of grinding and rustling. It was unnatural and very unsettling and I knew what was happening likely before a lot of the other people did.

Which was why I was already moving when it happened.

It was normal speed, I wasn't moving like a shinobi, but I moved fast all the same because I was already in action as the corner of the room started to collapse. I already knew who my target was, it was the closest person I could too, from what I could see, a middle aged woman. She looked sturdy, probably a merchant or a worker, but sturdy didn't matter as a civilian. It was a risk assessment I suppose, or maybe it was automatic. It would hurt, maybe even maim, but it wouldn't kill me to be in the rockslide, her however, it was a damn near death sentence.

I hit her in the side and the push sent her sliding across the ground and into other people, but that was all I saw of her as the rocks came down. Then I went through the hand signs and jumped into the ground, going down. It felt a bit like, well, I imagine it felt like jumping down a waterfall, the water pushing you down then suddenly stopping and vibrating once you got under the surface.

Except it hurt, it hurt a lot. The floor was rock, which meant doing an earth dive into it, while not impossible, was met with WAY more resistance than normal ground. The earth diving jutsu worked by moving the ground around you by forcing vibrations that sort of molded it to your shape, in stone you could do it, but the initial shock still hit because you were still diving headfirst into a stone. I don't know if the additional weight helped or not.

But I wasn't the only one.

Four other people had been caught in the cave in. I could sense them, soft shapes amongst the hard ones. I could feel breathing in two of them, the other two were not.

I pushed down the bile, I couldn't throw up underground. I hated this, hated the idea I could have helped but they were already where they were supposed to be, already protected and this happened anyway. Damn, damn it.

It was slow going through the rock. The floor was surprisingly thick, but I had to move carefully. This technique loosened the dirt, would probably loosen the rock as well. I had to keep my profile as small as possible but I wanted to, well I wanted to go up with whomever was still alive. Maybe I could make up an excuse or run away afterwards, but I wanted to do, something really, anything to help them at least.

I moved up through the ground in the small narrow pocket where the rocks had fallen while jagged in a somewhat stable way to make a patch of air. I pulled myself out, leaning down, my body sore and a bit tired from the dive. I gasped for the fresher air, it felt gravelly in the air pocket in the stone, it was fresher but the tint of blood made me turn.

Laying in a heap a stone pinning their back and blood trickling down the back of their head was an ANBU operative. His mask had been knocked askew and was laying not far from his face. A quick glance showed it was some sort of dog mask, I didn't know the breed but I recognized him. He had been one of the ANBU in the serving line. I had to crawl to get closer and put a hand on his head to do the diagnostic jutsu. He had a concussion but there was no bleeding in his brain from what I could tell, though the same could not be said about his face. His nose must have hit the inside of his mask from the impact because it was bent out of shape and there was a crack in his skull near the jawline. I immediately stopped the bleeding and started the mending of the bone. I couldn't do anything about the concussion, healing soft tissue, especially brain tissue, even for minor damage, was tricky business and I needed more training to do so.

As I healed with one hand I moved my other down his body. He was mostly okay in terms of his organs and other bones, a few scrapes and bruises, one of his legs had been pinned, but not heavily enough that I couldn't free it. As I pulled him upwards I heard the voices outside and did a quick jutsu to check again.

It surprised me what happened, but it shouldn't have.

They were evacuating, most of them from what I could see, and they weren't making an effort to pull anyone out from the rubble. What did that mean? I didn't know, I could feel the mass movement of people as well as some other people dashing around, but it wasn't a good picture. I heard muffled grunts and some sounds, but again I had no context. Was it a fight? Were people arguing? I had no idea. If I entered the fight, using jutsu as a foreign ninja, how would they take that I was here?

But maybe as an ally.

I looked at the ANBU in front of me. We were roughly the same height and build, though he couldn't see it. Same hair color too. With a hand I changed my part to match his and pulled the armor off as well as took my jacket off to match the uniform, thankfully I had a black undershirt on and dark pants. This may very well get me killed, but coming out with ninja skills when I was supposed to be a civilian would very well do the same. The harness looked hard but it was easy to click off. I put my dirty jacket on him, covering his tattoo, wrapped up his feet, put the mask on my face and was ready to go.

Maybe it was stupid to risk the mission on this, it probably was, but for a month I'd lived in this village. It was strange, I had been looking over my shoulder the entire time, but I had lived here. This wasn't a place that deserved to be destroyed, because despite all else most the people I saw, most the people I met with, were just normal hardworking people who had at least on the surface a good life. They weren't shinobi, they didn't think like shinobi, didn't want the things shinobi wanted, weren't a part of what shinobi did most of the time. They were by all accounts just innocent bystanders in all of this who only wanted what everyone wanted.

Peace, the peace afforded to them by a good home, good food, good people. It was all here, good people lived here because it was a good place. Maybe not a perfect place, but better, so much better than how, than how home had been.

I could see that through the people who worked so hard here, the stalls, the offices, and through Shiroe and Kotori. Especially them, even with the death of her husband the weight that had been on her while she lived in Kirigakure was gone here, here in this place she had a new home, a friend. Here was a place where her daughter could flourish.

I wanted to protect this place, partially for them, partially for the people out there and partially for me. It wouldn't remove my guilt, not completely, of what had happened, but it was something. This was probably a bad idea. This was probably an incredibly bad idea, but it was also the only one I had, or the only one I could live with.

I did the hand signs as I adjusted my vocal chords. I'd heard him speak only once when he spoke up a little in the line, because I'd tried to keep the conversation minimal. Still, I couldn't do this jutsu without speaking.

"Earth Release: Four Pillars"

I couldn't move the rubble very much, both because of the weight and the amount I could shift the floor before it collapsed under me. But it did shift enough as a loose roof, clearing a path and showing me the other person who was still breathing. It was another ANBU, had they switched out with civilians? The four pillars only created a few seconds for me, the rocks starting to shift almost immediately with the movement. I flickered out, taking both downed ANBU with me with absent grabs as I cleared the rubble before it descended again.

I was on the far side of the room when I glanced at the scene, it had been a fight, three ANBU were fighting a squad of six sound nin. It wasn't great odds, but I had to shift. I did a quick diagnostic on the other downed ANBU, found bleeding and set it to clot before turning.

Apparently one of the sound nin broke off to attack me and I slid back as the knife embedded itself in the torso of the ANBU I had just attended to. I pushed up from my position on the ground and used my legs to grab around his neck and bring him closer. I clasped both my hands and brought down a hammer strike on the top of his head with as much force as I could manage. It stunned him long enough as I got both hands around his head and snapped his neck.

The sound ninja went limp as I heaved out a breath and kicked the body off the shinobi. Pulling out the knife I sealed closed the wound and jumped to my feet. They were closer now, another shinobi might have made a run for me, but was cut off by an ANBU. I reached the deep pocket and pulled out the familiar weapon and wrapped it around my wrist.

"Down!"

I said in a loud voice and the ANBU ducked while I lashed out with the rope dart. The knife on the end slashed across the sound ninja's face as I pulled it back. He let out a grunt of pain, hand going up, though the motion was aborted as the ANBU in front of me stabbed into his heart with a tanto. Pulling back the rope dart, I gave it some rotation before I wrapped it back around my wrist as I dashed to support the other ANBU. She was favoring one arm but moving quickly through the three trying to gang up on her. Doing the hand movements I said the words.

"Force Jump."

I slammed into the side of one of them, knocking them aside while the other ANBU arrived in a flicker to push back one of them, who was advancing. I started spinning the rope for a slash when a scream tore the air.

It wasn't a normal scream, instead it was probably a type of jutsu as the ground vibrated as did my teeth and ears that were ringing as it felt like my eardrums would pop. I felt the vibrations in my bones and tried to muffle the sound with my hands. It was no use and when it stopped I fell to my knees, still shaking at the sound. I couldn't feel anything, past the pain of the shaking in my bones, couldn't hear anything either, the ringing in my ears deafening, nor could I think in that moment, let alone move, so the foot that met my face sent me flying backwards.

The ringing persisted even as I pushed a hand on the floor and tried to push myself up. Never knew a sound could do that much damage, even loud sounds. I felt another kick to my chest, which rolled me over painfully to my back as someone walked up next to me. My eyes made out in the dust the sound nin, looking closer I saw he had some sort of device on his neck with a mask. The mask was moving, which I guess meant he was saying something, but I still couldn't' hear. Was he taunting me or something? Maybe, I could feel his foot on my chest as he continued moving his mouth. Who was he even talking to? Did he think I could hear him, or that I was still down? I guess I was, it was hard to move, but my hand was under my body, near my back pocket.

I didn't have much in terms of supplies, but I had one or two weapons for emergencies. One was my rope dart, the other, well, the man who seemed to be doing some sort of scene from a play that I couldn't hear pushed down his leg on my chest. I felt my ribs ache at it but when he focused on the push I pulled my hand out and slapped the tag on his thigh and closed my eyes.

I only saw the flash of red on the other side of my eyelids, painful this close even under the mask and with the fact I had closed them before it happened. The weight was gone and the man had staggered back, off balance and blurry.

I watched him move about, until a kunai buried itself in his eye. Turning, I saw the female ANBU getting to her feet. She was walking towards me, her steps shaky as she moved. She was probably as deaf as I was, so she didn't hear them, but I saw the sound nin that had hidden or hadn't been in the blast of the flashbang.

I did the hand sign as quick as possible and spat the water bullet out. It whizzed past her head, hitting the sound nin square in the face and knocking him back. She turned then, bringing up her own tanto and slashing his throat before turning in a wide circle to examine the area. I didn't really see, I was panting as I tried to shakily get myself back to my feet. I felt a hand on my shoulder as she returned to my side and helped me up completely. She was a little taller than me, probably older too, with a thin frame, dark hair and a mask that looked a bit like some type of bird. I think I said thank you but I still couldn't really hear over the ringing in my ears.

I took a few deep breaths and put a hand on my ear, using the healing jutsu one at a time. The first ear popped and I started to hear talking, I did the second one and I finally caught.

"-airs for evac and set. Can you move?"

She was saying it rather loudly. I blinked at her and put a hand on her head doing the same for her. She blinked a moment later.

"Did you…"

"Healer." I said weakly as I looked around the battlefield.

I saw the other ANBU that had come to help her fight had fallen in the scuffle. I hadn't seen it, it must have happened pretty fast. I tried to hobble over but the woman put an arm off.

"Stop, I checked, he's already gone."

She did a hand sign and a moment later he started to flash and his body burned away. I stared at the spot for a moment before looking at her, nodding.

She just returned my gaze or maybe she didn't, couldn't tell through the mask. Still, she didn't linger and turned the two of us to the stairs.

"We have to go help with evac. If you can heal there might be civilians who need your help."

I looked at her dumbly, then nodded before looking at the other two I'd taken out of the rubble.

"We'll move them, once we can get our bearings. But civilians are the priority."

I nodded again and we staggered as our bodies tried to shake off the sound jutsu.

* * *

The evacuation didn't go through the village, it actually went to an underground tunnel that led out of the village and into the forest beyond. The civilians didn't need healing from the attack, some had needed healing from having fallen or bumped into people, two or three had been trampled in the confusion. I could handle most of that just fine as we moved and crowded them out to safety. There was another section of ANBU waiting at the end of the tunnel, they had created a perimeter and were watching for any stray shinobi to prevent them from pushing into the clearing with the civilians.

After the fight, after the expectation when things finally calmed down, I was exhausted. I slipped away as best I could in the shuffle. I thought I'd given them the slip but when I arrived in the tree three ANBU were waiting for me, one of them was still wearing my jacket.

I looked at them for a moment then at the man. He was staring at me. It was just silence between the four of us, I'd been caught, that much was certain. They could capture me, interrogate me, or even just kill me here. Even if I didn't do anything technically wrong in the village, I did just impersonate a leaf shinobi. That was bad.

I could have fought, but I was so tired. They probably were too, bruised and battered as they were. Still, we stood there staring at each other in the forest when the woman in the bird mask said.

"Is this were you dropped it, Pug?"

"Honestly you'd think you'd take better care of your mask. We'll have to get you a new one at this rate, new name." The man in the other mask, that looked like a bear now that I had a closer look said teasingly.

"It was a tense situation, sometimes things get lost. But I'm sure the village would like it back."

The man I'd taken the outfit from, Pug I guess, said it with an exaggerated gesture. I blinked at him, and them. They weren't looking directly at me, but I got the message. I used a henge on my face before taking it off. But I did take off the mask and armor, I set it down on the treeline then jumped back from it and to the ground.

I didn't see them grab the outfit, I didn't even stay for it, nor did I look back. It was better that way, in case they changed their minds.

* * *

I didn't slip in the village with the other civilians, I slipped in instead with one of many relief caravans. Other villages had shipped in supplies for rebuilding almost a day later, so it was easy to come in with them to check on things. I found Shiroe and Kotori in their apartment, it was thankfully unscathed by the attack. Though apparently we kept things brief as they were doubling up with other families who did have missing homes in neighboring parts of the village.

I gave Shiroe the slips to cash out. I was too, well, jumpy to attempt that myself. It was a lot of money, but she'd send it through the rabbits, so it should be fine. I left the village almost as soon as I'd dropped it off on an outward caravan to get more supplies. It wasn't hard to slip in, when I did though I found Hishino Juki doing the same.

I didn't say hi to him, I didn't want to make a lasting impression on anyone, but it did make me think of the broken statue he gave me. Reaching into my pocket I pulled it out.

I wasn't as good with the jutsu as Gonmaru was, but I'd managed to reattach most of the bits of the statue. It was a slightly deformed bird, but I liked it a bit. The kingfisher with the large beak, and the small wings that looked like it was just in flight. Sure, a few feather tips missing from the wings, the places where I'd pushed together the cracked stone didn't fit perfectly together, showing chips here or there. But it was whole, mostly, maybe if I worked with it a bit it would look better later.

But you could see the shape clearly now. Battered as it was, it was pretty as it gleamed in the sunlight in my hands.

Really, I didn't think much of the value of the statues at first, but maybe I'd buy some more for the others later. It'd be nice to have a little more color back home.

* * *

 **Benjiro in Konohaland, as promised some time ago. Long chapter, but I wanted to get across a few points. The original Benjiro chapter covered a little bit about his personality, but nothing about his own personal skills and fighting style. Benjiro as a jack has a pretty unpronounced fighting style, he's also the only ninja known in story to have the same score in every ranking.**


	9. Kiriko

Kiriko

Have you ever been hated, not for anything you have done, but because of what you were? When I look back that's all that ever happened in the orphanage, hatred. Which is a contradiction when it was supposed to be a place where if not loved, you were accepted.

The hatred started with the adults, the adults hated us. They hated us when we weren't quiet, when we weren't reasonable, if they paid any attention to us at all they hated us. They punished us, not to teach us, but because it was the only way they could vent that hatred. Sometimes they beat us, sometimes they didn't feed us, sometimes they screamed at every little thing. No behavior except quiet and compliant was acceptable, you couldn't cry, you couldn't complain, no one would save you, no one would care. This hatred created another kind of hatred, a more poisonous kind that the children experienced nonstop.

The hatred of those who got to leave.

In the end, leaving was the goal of everyone there. In our minds, adoption was our hope. Though we knew that older kids left after a certain point, we didn't know where they went. We just thought they went to an older kid orphanage, a place where they could be more miserable. No one ever wanted to go there. So the older kids were all the more desperate to leave, which meant they absolutely despised the younger kids because the younger you were, the more likely you were to be adopted. It was strange but that's how the adults worked. So the older kids hated and despised the younger kids, and the younger kids were terrified of the older kids. But in particular I was a special case, everyone hated me.

According to the adults, according to adopters, I was pretty. I never thought so, but that was what they said. So whenever a lineup happened, whenever an adopter came along to look at us, something would happen to me.

Who did it, well it really didn't matter, it was always an older orphan, they were vicious and desperate to leave. Being tripped, elbowed, having things thrown at me, on me, sneezing to make me sick, pushing me behind a door and wall so I couldn't line up to be adopted, or that I would appear broken or clumsy or just dumb. Every day was the same, they hated me and I had no idea why and I had no idea it wasn't normal.

Then someone who wasn't normal appeared.

Infants were kept separate from the other kids, the adults knew somewhat what was happening and didn't want them to die from the abuse. As much as they couldn't handle it they made sure as many kids stayed whole as possible so they could come of age. When I found out where the older kids who weren't adopted went it made much more sense why. But once they could walk and move around, toddlers could interact with other kids. I watched them sometimes, they were so cute regardless of the trouble they could be, but I didn't interact with them directly. Truthfully, it was because I was afraid they would run from me, or that they wouldn't like me either like everyone else seemed not to. But one day one approached me instead.

She was smaller than the other toddlers, with a mop of red hair. Her face was thin and grey eyes looked at me tugging at my shirt and pointing at the bookshelf. I froze as I stared at her, not understanding why she was here, but she tugged again to try and pull me along. Not that she got me far. But I looked again and pulled the book she wanted down and handed it to her. She immediately opened it flat on the ground and sat flat on her butt staring at the words intently. It was strange for certain, no other toddler was interested in books. After a few minutes of her just staring she reached out and grabbed me again. This time on my sleeve and pointed at the page. The entire time she made no sound, she just pointed trying to get me to, to read. I could read a little bit, they taught us hiragana, but not a lot. But she was insistent. I looked down at her arm and realized why. There were light bruises on it. She had probably asked another older kid and they squeezed her arm or pushed her away. But here she was, still insisting to be read, insisting I read to her.

I remember the warmth, the warmth as she crawled into my lap and I read to her. Sometimes I'd get stuck, sometimes I didn't know a word or a sound. I would get an adult to help, sometimes they would if only to get rid of us, sometimes they would turn us away but we kept at it, and she kept coming to me.

And that was the day I realized I probably would have done anything for that little girl, for my little sister Ume.

I remember the day we were taken away. I remember how much I wanted to cry when I had to leave her behind. How much fear I had when she ran out after us and was taken away by the shinobi only for her to show up a few hours later, fine and ready to be by my side in this new place.

It was strange because in the new place, the place we should have feared or hated, we found acceptance. It was the contradiction I noticed but also the contradiction that my little sister had become the big sister. Almost overnight it seemed the little girl who needed help and comfort in turn became the one who gave help and comfort. Not just for me, but for everyone.

With music and food she created fun, with commands and plans she created a platoon, and with love and patience, she created a family. Despite being the youngest of us, the smallest of us, and the weakest of us, in a lot of ways she held us together. She became the parent, or at least the dream of a parent we all longed for at the orphanage.

It was all the more strange because the entire thing weighed on her. She was strong but fragile, a person with a smile for everyone but herself. Not that she would ever admit to anyone that she wasn't okay, if only to keep us from worrying for her sake. It was most obvious when she slept, when she would cry out into the night and I would go to her side. Only in the darkness would she allow herself to appear weak and despite taking the role of the parent it was by my side that she allowed herself to be a child.

Which was why when we left the village with her absent I was worried for her and us.

We'd been walking on glass it seemed since we learned the truth. The preparations we took to leave were already done, but we still couldn't leave. Not without Hiroshi.

Our teammate, our friend, the quiet boy who disappeared after the exam only to be found to have been sent to the Mizukage's side. I don't think I'd ever seen Ume so scared before, even at the wall she had been less pale. But then, I didn't see much of her there. I had hidden then, the moment the line broke I ran and hid.

Because that was all I could do.

Not much has changed since then because I, like every other person, ran when the chakra sweeped over the village. When it did I couldn't think, couldn't breathe, all I knew was I had to get out of that place, I needed to leave because something was coming and it would kill me. I knew it in my bones, knew it to my very core that where that chakra went, death would follow. But even while I ran I still acted. We had a plan and we would do it. I summoned the rabbits.

Six rabbits, one for team four, one for team three, one for Shiroe and Kotori, one for Ume, one for Suigetsu and one to direct me. The rabbits were, according to them, primarily non combatants, they described themselves as prey and acted as such. But they were sensors and according to them they could sense all of their rabbits as well as anyone they had previously met. I had to summon the rabbits before, one by one on separate days to get to know them. The six rabbits were the only ones I could summon at the moment, they were Tamanegi, Daikon, Momo and her twin sister Mikan, Koyo who didn't seem to like me very much and Nana who was the oldest. They were all siblings and all from the youngest generation of those who could be summoned, which is why it took relatively little chakra to summon them one at a time.

Though all at once they still staggered me and made me pause for breath. It still made me only pause, I directed them and kept running. Strangely enough, they weren't startled or even scared about the demon's chakra.

As I stumbled out with the people rushing out of the village I went to the first checkpoint.

It was a small cave, not very far from the village, one that hadn't existed before. Gonmaru had made it for us and Minami had marked it with a seal the rabbits could track. It was a simple seal according to her, one that just let out a small amount of noise that we couldn't hear. It was amazing she made it at all. You couldn't find it otherwise, it was under a rock that was easy to miss in the mountain side. I pushed it aside, slid in and closed it behind me, waiting in the darkness.

In the dim light the first to come arrived. It was Benjiro. but I held down low as I locked eyes with him.

"Hello darkness my old friend."

"I've come to speak with you again."

Benjiro responded quickly. A few moments later Gonmaru appeared, pushing the rock around to make room for his larger frame.

"I was left to my own devices, many days fell away with nothing to show."

"And the walls kept tumbling down in the city that we loved." Gonmaru said quickly.

"Kami, things really are falling apart, aren't they?"

"You guys have really weird code phrases, you know that?" The girl with braided brown hair that was crawling in after him said.

"You know…"

"Gotta keep, one step ahead of the breadline, one swing ahead of the sword. I steal only what I can't afford." Benjiro started on her this time.

"Guys this is stupid. You know… hey!" Gonmaru had an arm around her neck a moment later and held her. "Let go!"

"Sorry" He said, but still held her.

The three of us stared at her and she let out a huff before speaking.

"One jump ahead of the lawman, that's all and that's no joke. These guys don't appreciate I'm broke."

Gonmaru put her down and she dusted herself off, glaring at him he shrugged his shoulders.

"You could have been switched out. We talked about this before."

"I was right behind you. Besides, no one knows we were coing here and everyone was fleeing. Besides, we have her."

Nana jumped through the hole a moment later. She was larger than Tamanegi or Daikon, but only by a little bit, her fur grey and brown. The rabbit looked at her.

"You were separated from us in the crowd for several minutes. It would have been a good time to switch you. But you smell the same, Kumihimo-san."

"My name isn't…"

"The rabbits like giving nicknames. She didn't mean anything by it." I said, holding up my hand. "Anyway, we need to sit and wait for the others."

"If we're gonna wait around, shouldn't we be trying to get more people? This is the start of something, I can tell. People are too scared to let this rest." Fujiko said again, her hands balled into fists as she looked at us.

Benjiro started this time.

"You know it's not that simple. I wish we could, but…"

"But information leaks, yeah, yeah." She said as she sat against the wall. "I doubt anybody would even wonder at this point if some people never came back, that was…" She shuddered, wrapping her arms around her.

"Yeah, it was, but we're getting away from that. Once we're all together we're going to get out of here." I said it this time and tried to smile at her in the dark. She didn't seem reassured.

* * *

Even after Minami, Mitsuki, Shiroe, Kotori and finally Suigetsu arrived we stayed until nightfall, if they were searching for the people who left they would do so almost immediately after things were calmed down. It took a bit of time, but it was still several hours later when we left to make sure they were either elsewhere or not looking around the village. Staying close to the village for the first checkpoint was the decision made because it would be easy to overlook. Surely someone who was trying to escape wouldn't stay so close.

We left without Ume, she had sent word back that we should leave without her, I would have argued to stay, but I knew it wouldn't have done any good. Nothing good would come from us staying in one spot for too long, plus we had a mapped out plan. Everyone memorized it, with some auxiliary spots in case we were discovered. It took forever to map out and we had to keep a tight time. Thankfully, despite now being a clerk Shiroe had been a shinobi, while she was wasn't in the best shape she could keep pace even while carrying Kotori.

We stopped at Kinto, a small trading outpost about two hours from the village and stayed there until morning. Some of the others slept, but I couldn't. It wasn't that far, not for someone like Ume. She'd know where we were and when we were, but I still couldn't shake how long she was taking.

The next morning we changed and started traveling at civilian speeds. There was a very real temptation to just rush for the shores and escape the country in the confusion at shinobi speed, but that had a very real danger of immediate pursuit. There was also the problem of obtaining passage. The Land of Water was several days by boat to the nearest island countries, let alone to Land of Fire, which was at least a week away on a fast vessel. According to Shiroe she could use her connections to find a smuggler vessel, but if we let slip we were shinobi they'd be more likely to turn us in for the standing bounty on missing nin than actually try and help us.

The safest way was traveling through the islands at a civilian pace until we got to one of the furthest islands from Kirigakure to catch a sailing ship where we'd be least likely to be intercepted by the barricade.

Not that this didn't meet some resistance as we walked down the path.

"Kami, this is taking forever."

"Walking does that, yes." I replied to Suigetsu in his disguised appearance.

Most of us were using tactile disguises, but Suigetsu simply changed form to make himself look completely different. Instead of his lanky self he redistributed the water to a stouter form, with dark hair and differently colored eyes. I hadn't known he was capable of such drastic changes, but then again, much like a normal henge, his cover would be blown by any attack that broke the water tension revealing his liquid form.

"I'm thirsty." He said.

Reaching into my pouch I pulled out a canteen and tossed it to him. He took a sip and made a face.

"Ah, come on, you don't have any smoothies."

"I only packed essentials, imouto-san will have those when we meet up again." I avoided using names.

"Whatever"

He emptied the canteen and took a few steps to place it in my bag before he started jogging backwards. His hands went behind his head as he looked at us.

"So what're we gonna do then, til we get there? Sing a song? Maybe we can do one of those stories." He looked back. "Seriously, something, anything."

"Can't you take anything seriously? We aren't exactly going on vacation" Fujiko snapped at Suigetsu.

Gonmaru was next to her and just shook his head.

"You don't need to be so testy Fu, he's just talking. Maybe we should sing a song, it'll lighten the mood a bit."

"The mood? You think we should lighten the mood, we're…" She clenched her jaw. "Nevermind, what's the point of even talking about it. It's not like he's in any danger anyway."

Her head just motioned towards Suigetsu as she walked.

"Excuse me?" Suigetsu said, raising an eyebrow.

"What? There's nothing on the line for you, you can just go back and they won't even touch you. Is it a wonder you're treating this like a vacation?" She said, letting out a huff

"You think this isn't dangerous for me?" He said, looking at her.

"I know it isn't. I'm no…"

I grabbed Fujiko by the back of her shirt and she stopped cold at the sudden tug. I wasn't much stronger than she, in fact she probably could have pushed out of the grip if she tried as she was a little taller than me. But it was a clear set.

"What?" She looked at me, then at Suigetsu. "You defending him?"

"I understand why you might feel that way, but you're being inconsiderate to him. Apologize." I said with a neutral tone.

"Who are you, my mother?" She said as she pushed my hand off her collar and started walking again as she was looking at me. Running forward, she dashed ahead.

I looked at Benjiro and Gonmaru. Gonmaru just shook his head while Benjiro shrugged.

Letting out a sigh, I looked at the others and dashed after her to keep pace. I couldn't let her get too far ahead and this wasn't going to resolve itself.

Maybe I could have done some grandstanding gesture to put her in her place, but honestly I preferred things to be a bit more private. Though when it came to actually talking I kept things simple.

"Stop." I said it simply and she paused mid stride to look back at me.

"Stop what." She said. "Am I…"

I held up a hand.

"This isn't productive, and it certainly isn't helpful. I know you're scared."

"You don't know anything." She said. "You and your little pact with your spoiled he…"

"His status with his family has absolutely nothing to do with any of this and you shouldn't snap at people in your group nor can you just go running ahead." I replied.

"Who gives you the authority to…"

"It's not about authority, it's not even about stature. That's not how we work." I replied.

"Why, because your chibi commander isn't here?" She said as she walked forward. "He's only here because they're friends, I wouldn't be surprised if he or that Kishi aren't spies fo…"

I ran in front of her and cut off her walking.

"His brother was killed no less than two weeks ago as a political ploy and that Kishi's husband was my sensei, who not only taught us but died protecting us."

I met her eyes and kept my voice level but I didn't think I could stop the shaking.

"So, it's his fault we're leaving. He dumped this on us, and the implication may as well have killed us all the sa…"

My palm hit her face as she stepped into it. The shock hit her more than the actual hit and she looked at me startled, her face red.

"You hit me, you think you can ju…"

"I said stop." I added emphasis on the last word.

"You've been complaining this entire trip, the entire plan, you've been pushing against it. You hadn't even given any good reasonable explanations for it. Just petty grievances and empty words to split up the group." I looked at her.

"Do you honestly think you are the only one who doesn't want to do this? You think you are the only one who is doubting every action we take, every step away from the only world we know? You throw out accusations, but what good do they do? You're not the only one who is second guessing, you're not the only one who is scared."

"Then why are we here? Why so few people, why all this secrecy?" She said, pointing at me. "Why are we bringing them but not my sensei, or my friends? They're probably scared too, they're in teams and are going to be dragged into this war too. Why didn't we grab them to escape?"

"We don't know where they are! We waited as long as we could but they hadn't come back from that mission. As for your sensei, we had no idea whether or not we could trus…"

"Trust? She's my sensei, she's your brother's sensei and you didn't think you could trust her with this. She could have helped." She said. "She still can."

"She wasn't always your… Wait, what do you mean by that?" I looked at her again and she turned away. "What did you do?"

"We're heading to the way point, right? It won't be much longer." She said, walking forward.

By this point I could hear the others coming closer. They had gotten a bit of distance but were coming closer.

"Did you, did you tell her?" I said, standing there, a little stunned.

She didn't speak, but I could tell from her expression she was guilty.

"Fujiko." I said, walking over. "You can't have…"

"Can't have what? Saved the people I loved too? You're so selfish you…"

"Stop!" I said, my eyes growing frantic as something glinted in the distance.

She grit her teeth and ran ahead.

"Will you stop telling me to..."

The senbon flew out of the treeline and caught her in the neck, freezing her place. There was a snap and I cried out even as I jumped prone. The wire snapped through the air, very visible in the morning mist. It slung around the tree in a snap, doubling with some wire already there and constricting together. The level was low for an adult, it would have wrapped around the midsection.

In Fujiko's case, it wrapped around her neck, constricted for all of a second before severing the flesh, then severing the head.

I didn't see it fall, I was already running as I ran through the hand signs.

"Yin Release: Mirror's False Army"

The bunshin appeared around me scattering in different directions as I headed for the others. I met Gonmaru first, his staring form almost stopping me flat as I grabbed his arm to move him.

"Move!" I said as I pulled his arms.

He stared in shock even as his feet moved and followed after me. I did another release and sent two pairs of us scattering in the other directions as we moved in the treeline. Everyone else was separating in pairs to avoid capture as we went.

"Do the dowsing maneuver."

Gonmaru didn't respond, his body going only following the minimal movement as I pulled him along. It wasn't fast going.

"Gonmaru! We have to…"

He grabbed me with his arm and turned his body, pulling me along. Several senbon embed themselves in his back and he let out a huff.

"Gonmaru!" I cried as he slumped onto my body.

Grabbing him under my arm I pulled us to the ground as more senbon flew. Doing the signs, I created an illusion cloaking us from sight.

Placing a hand on his back I felt the points where the senbon were. It wasn't a lethal hit, some of them might have been had he not turned so quickly, but he'd have trouble moving his arm for a while and I could feel there was poison. That wasn't good, but I couldn't move us. I had to stay still while I maintained the genjutsu and the air around us. I created an air bubble to mask our breathing, our body heat and the smell of our bodies. I also pushed my chakra down as much as I could while I did so. Whoever was out there, they might have had tracking summons like the rabbits.

I started humming to myself as I closed my eyes in concentration. Doing so much at once would be taxing on my concentration but I had to remain calm, I had to take care of Gonmaru. We had a plan for this too, if we ever got attacked we'd scatter, separate and pair off. No one alone, everyone would grab who they could and run. It wasn't exactly the plan for me to stay here but I wouldn't be leaving Gonmaru as he was. For the moment that was all I could do.

I don't know how long we were there, or how long I held the illusion of dead brush. But I would hold out as long as I could while I treated the wounds.

Most of the senbon came out readily, either they hadn't been aiming for him or hadn't expected it to hit as much muscle. It would hurt later, but it wouldn't kill him. They had managed to get some pressure points, that along with the poison on them was probably what caused him to black out. I knew some pressure points, I also knew the pain alone could take someone out if they weren't prepared for it.

The poison was a paralytic or some sort of sedative. I wasn't certain which, but I could tell that, while fairly concentrated, it wasn't enough to kill someone with Gonmaru's sheer bulk. But then, if I looked at it, they hadn't been aiming at him, they had been aiming for me and even in shock he took the hit.

It probably would have been better if I'd been hit and he could still move, he could have carried me away or taken us underground instead of us being stuck here. I wasn't confident enough to try and move him, even if he was only lightly injured it would slow me down and make us easy to capture.

When I was done I held out smelling salts under his nose as I held a hand over his mouth. He started to come to slowly, but a moment later tried to jolt up, almost knocking me off him.

"Down, stay down…" I said in a whisper and he looked at me, his eyes scanning around.

He winced as he tried to move, I reached over and placed an arm over the places in his shoulder and arm where the senbon hit muscle and released a light numbing technique to reduce the pain as I signed for quiet, then that there were possible unknowns in the area. He nodded, wincing as he moved to a crouching position.

He did a few hand signs and whispered.

"Earth Release: Vibration Sense."

He placed both hands on the ground and closed his eyes. I stayed as still as I could while he surveyed the area. He signed to me that there were two to the northeast and I nodded, asking back how far.

He replied far enough and we started to move in a crouch. We couldn't stay for longer than we already had, they might double back and do a more thorough sweep. He pointed at the ground and I nodded to him to wait for his cue. He took a deep breath and concentrated before doing the hand signs, grabbing me and pulling the both of us into the ground.

I'd never done the earth walking technique before, let alone been pulled along underground by one. It was rather claustrophobic, being so surrounded by dirt, really encased in it, yet we were flowing through it like it was, maybe not water, thick mud might have been a better comparison. It was strangely cold too, the only warmth being his side, which I was pulled up against with his arm pinning me to his torso. I didn't fidget even though I wanted to, I didn't know what would happen if I lost contact with him.

We went on like this for a short while, just him propelling us through the ground, his arm pulling us along like he was swimming and I was all but a dead weight against him. Sometimes he dipped and turned, sometimes small rocks or roots brushed against us and he had to move around or power through them. When we finally surfaced we pulled ourselves up onto one of the black shores. A lot of the shorelines were jagged rocks, or steep cliffs, but some of them were black. It wasn't a pleasant feeling as we surfaced, the black sand clinging to our skin and clothing as he pulled us from the surface. The rough material was not pleasant and I placed hands on my face to draw it away by sticking it to my hands with chakra then shaking it off.

Turning towards him I was about to ask him why here when I saw him slump down onto the beach, panting. Sitting down next to him I pulled out my canteen before remembering it was empty. Looking around I saw the beach water and signed I would be right back.

It only took a few minutes to pull an orb of water out from the sea and to draw all the salt out with one hand to make it drinkable. It was a hard technique, water bonded really well with salt naturally and didn't want to separate, but it was one of the techniques taught to everyone in support company. No matter how bad you were at ninjutsu, you couldn't get through the training without it. Thankfully, the technique was towards my nature, so I could do it well enough. I did another technique to make sure it was sanitized before pushing the water into my cantine.

When I returned Gonmaru had laid himself onto his back, his eyes staring up at the sky. I sat next to him but hesitated to move. Taking in a breath I held out the cantine.

"Drink, we'll have to move soon."

He didn't respond, just looking upwards, staring into the darkness of the night. It wasn't a clear night, the overcast of the day blocking out the stars. I didn't know if he was looking for them, or anything really, he just lay there in the quiet.

"We can't stay here, it's too exposed."

He turned his head towards me.

"Is it even worth it?"

My breath caught in my throat but I pushed it down. I wasn't going to start down this, we were still in danger. We had to stick, to something really, some sort of plan, some sort of actual plan. It's why we spent so much time preparing, so we wouldn't be caught unaware again, not like then, not like the last time…

I let out a choke as the images flashed into my head. The smell, the body parts, the screaming. I clenched my fist and bit down on my bottom lip, trying to focus on the pain. It was hard, hard, another contradiction. Wasn't that supposed to be the day of build up, but then, that, them, Enji.

That single thought, that single word corroded what was left of my control as I curled into myself.

I closed my eyes as my head started pounding and my stomach started to clench in on itself. Old pain, it was an old pain, but this made it new again. Why did this have to come now, I couldn't, I couldn't do this.

"Stop, stop, stop…" I said, looking at the ground. "Why won't this stop."

"Because it's our fault."

The words forced me out of my haze as I stared at En… Gonmaru laying there, eyes to the sky.

"We pushed against them, and they won, they always win. Why are we surprised, why are we even trying?"

"Gonmaru." I let out the word weakly.

"Why did we even run? Now they have a reason, kami, they didn't have that before."

He said, a sand covered hand going to his now wet face.

"We couldn't have stayed there." I leaned forward to look at him. "They would ha…."

"What!" He shot up so quickly I had to rear back from the sudden movement. "Killed us! Made us fight! We're already doing that!"

"Gonmaru we can't go ba…"

"Of course not! Because now they have a REASON. They didn't even need that before. Not with the wall, not with…" His teeth gritted as he took a fist and hit the sand, once, then twice, then three times. "She was right! We should have gone back. We should have!"

"We made a decision, we can't…."

The hand grabbed my throat and lifted me in the air before I finished. He had big hands, even for a boy, and it only took one to grab it completely.

"We, we! You made a decision, you and Ume, we just went along with it, and now, now Fujiko's DEAD!"

He was standing now, in a fluid motion maybe from his anger, maybe from adrenaline he'd brought the both of us up on the beach and he was holding me there in the air. I had trouble breathing as I tried to grip the fingers to get free, but his grip was iron around my neck and as I looked around I tried to get a look at his face, but I couldn't.

Panic started to set in as my world started to fade, air pushing away from me. I had to calm him down, I had to get down. I couldn't help if.. If…

I removed my hand and did the signs before grabbing his wrists. The emotion I gave out was what I was feeling, panic, fear, despair, desperation, all pushed from me into him. I didn't know if it would work, if I could push down his grief and anger, but as the world started to go dark the fingers loosened and I fell to the dark sand. Gasping for air I held a hand to my throat and felt a bruise starting to form. I applied chakra to it before turning as I saw Gonmaru crumple to the ground. He didn't look angry, he just looked, empty. His eyes were tearing as he stared at his hands.

I looked at him and started to move slowly towards him. He looked up and I flinched back out of memory of what just happened.

That wasn't the right thing to do, because he slumped down even more,

"I'm" A throaty sob came out. "So, sorry, I'm, so, so sorry. I didn't, I couldn't…"

The emptiness turned to anguish as he buried his head in his hands. I walked forward and held my arms around his neck. That was right, this wasn't the second time for him was it, it was the third. His parents died too, he was there though I didn't know the details. I don't think any of us did except maybe Benjiro, we didn't ask because we didn't want him to have to relive it again. We knew he'd lost them, that was enough and he'd lost, he'd lost his best friend at the wall too. Now, now he'd lost his teammate. So I couldn't stay mad or scared of him. He'd had a moment of weakness and lost his temper in his grief and he regretted it.

I couldn't find it in me to be mad about it, I hadn't even seen it coming. He'd never hurt any of us before, not even in spars. He tried so hard to be gentle in spars, to keep from going too far because he hated hurting people so much. It was another contradiction, someone so gentle being someone who could cause the most harm.

I really should expect it by now.

* * *

We weren't able to completely regroup until about two weeks later. We had to lay low to prevent us being caught into the group. We couldn't go to any of the prelaid way points that Fujiko knew of for fear of there being more ambushes. There were still a couple that she didn't though, each person had their own safe point the others didn't know about. The only person who knew where everyone's retreating points were was Ume, which was still rather nerve-wracking as she hadn't gotten in contact with any of us yet.

I used the rabbits to regroup us, tracking down a pair at a time. The first one I did was the one with Benjiro in it. It was no secret I was doing it for Gonmaru's benefit, we found them three days later and the two of them separated to have their own vigil for their lost teammate. Benjiro had paired off with Shiroe and Kotori. We found Minami and Mitsuki five days later, they had kept moving, so it was harder to track them down.

Last we found Chojuro, who had apparently been scouring beaches looking for Suigetsu. When we got to him he was distraught that they got separated. Apparently Chojuro got injured and Suigetsu said he'd lure them away. Chojuro protested but Suigetsu knocked him out and hid him, by the time he had come to Suigetsu and the ninja hunting them were gone, so Chojuro started searching for water sources since that's where he would have gone to fight.

Suigetsu was at his strongest around large water sources. I tried to help with the search, but the rabbits couldn't find him. Maybe because he did go into the water, or maybe because he was already gone.

That was another person gone, this wasn't looking good.

We were all together in a small coastal town, it was on a cliff overlooking the water. People were coming and going, more nervous than not. The word of what had happened was spreading, and fighting had already broken out.

The war was starting, and we were still here. The decision wasn't entirely my own, but I am sure they considered it when we tried to discuss where we'd go now. Leaving the country would get harder the more time went by. It was already hard, we had money saved up, but getting that far would be hard and there was one real factor to it.

Ume was still gone.

I'd tried tracking her with the rabbits around the points, but there were no new trails for them to follow. No evidence of her moving or her going to any of the waypoints we set up. It was concerning, and speculation was starting. We didn't say it as a group, but I knew the others were discussing the possibility. But we had no way to confirm so we were just stuck.

Until the one night.

Daikon woke me up one night in a fit. I kept a rabbit summoned while I was sleeping as a guard, he was positively scared as he jumped on me.

"There's a predator outside, we need to run, need to hide."

"What?" I bolted up, feeling around in the dark. "Is it a, wait…"

Predator, that was a strange word. They didn't use that when they thought it was other shinobi.

"What do you mean, a predator?" I said as rolled out of the futon.

"A bird of prey, not a normal one, a hunter who could eat us or take us back to our world. We have to flee before…"

I put a hand on his mouth.

"A summon"

A bird summons, a hunter summons…

An owl.

I jumped up and padded forward. With my foot, I nudged Mitsuki awake.

"Get up, there's a summons here."

The girl blinked, her curly hair framing her face as she rolled onto her shoulder.

"A summons, an enemy?"

The voice was tired as she pushed herself up.

"An owl. That might mean..." I said, looking at her hopefully.

"You shouldn't be so quick." She drew herself up and grabbed her bow from her bag. "This may be a trick or a trap. He shares that contract with the other Kishi."

"No, he doesn't. Only heads can sign the clan contracts." I said quickly. "And why would his father seek us out?"

"Because he was ordered to." Mitsuki said in her normal deadpan.

Though her expression gave away some flicker of doubt in her words, it was slight a twitch of her eyes as she adjusted.

"Don't wake the others, they aren't quiet. If it's true, if it is his, we don't know what this could mean."

"He's my teammate." I replied.

"He was your teammate." She corrected. "Your team dissolved officially with the death of your sensei." She set two fingers on the side of her head. "There was no contact, no set-up. I understand you and Ume were trying to contact him but..."

"He was with, he was with that person." I didn't say it directly, not out loud. "And that freaked out Ume. It might have something, look, we don't have time. Owls are hunter birds, maybe even tracker summons. If he wanted us dead he'd have sent them out earlier to help with tracking us, he didn't. A summons can find us if they've met the person at least once, Hiroshi's summons saw us all at the exams."

I said as I headed towards the window to peer out. In the moonlight I saw a small owl perched on a fence outside the small inn. It was a large owl, larger than a normal owl would be, large enough for a teenager to ride on.

Looking around, I jumped over the window frame and walked forward slowly. Truth was, I wasn't entirely sure this wasn't a bad thing. As Mitsuki said it'd been six months. But then, I didn't see why I should doubt Hiroshi. Despite what happened in our academy days, he wasn't a bad person. Not only that, he tried so hard to be a better person. Not just a better ninja, a better person. If he saw or heard something wrong he tried to fix it. In Kirigakure that took the form of money, not direct help of course, he found out very quickly that if he tried to help people directly they'd be suspicious of him. It's why he would sometimes ask me who was struggling, which families needed money or support and then he would make big orders to their businesses through his clan.

He was like Ume in that regard at least, or maybe he was trying to imitate her. But if he couldn't help us directly, couldn't be here himself I could see him doing this, sending us a summons.

The bird looked at me, its head swiveling slightly to the side as it examined me. I glanced around a bit nervously but decided maybe I should introduce myself. Leaning forward I did a deep bow to the bird.

"Konbanwa." I kept my head bowed as I tried to glance around in case of ambush. A moment later I saw a flicker of shadow to indicate the bird had bowed back.

"Konbanwa, owner of the rabbit contract. I have come here bearing a message from my contract holder."

The owl's voice was female, higher than I expected for its size as she looked up.

"The lost rabbit has been strung up, there is not much time before the slaughter even though she has not strayed from the burrow."

I recorded the message in my mind, my eyes flickering through the code. It wasn't a hard one, though it would be nonsense to anyone else listening I knew what it meant and that made me gasp. I watched the owl bow shortly and start to fly away. I didn't stop her, didn't even move from my spot as a hand on my face shook. This was, she might be, no, no…

I don't know how long I was out there but I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking up, I saw Mitsuki along with Minami standing there.

"What is wrong?"

I looked up at her, eyes locking with hers as I said in a shaky voice.

"Ume, she never left the village."

* * *

"We can't come with you." Shiroe said it as firmly as possible. "I can't take the risk."

Kotori was in the other room with Gonmaru and Benjiro, going over words and sounds. Shiroe had put a seal on her daughter to render her deaf and mute to keep her out of the academy. I'd call it cruel, but as much as the academy was a home for us, for her it would have separated the little girl from her family and eventually made her a shinobi. I understood the fear behind the action, even if I didn't condone it.

"We prepared as best we can, we'll get out as soon as possible." I said as I got our things together to leave.

"And if the worse has happened?" Shiroe said and I winced at it.

I really didn't want to think about the possibility. I had to go, if what I got from the code was correct she was being tortured. I'd never seen the torture chambers myself, but I knew it was bad. Ume one time spent months cleaning them, she had nightmares for weeks.

"We'll come find you. Kansen wanted you safe, so we're going to keep you safe." I gave her a smile. "It's the least we could do."

She nodded.

"I don't want to put this on your shoulders, but at the same time I won't reject it. I, I don't know what he… they would do if they caught me."

I wanted to ask the question but I let Shiroe keep that to herself. If she was running from someone in particular, well it wasn't my place to dwell. She helped us so far by finding the contacts for the smuggling vessels.

We left in the middle of the night, running at shinobi speed. We weren't worried about subtlety, because that was going to be out the window once we started. Instead we were betting on confusion and the battles to act as a backdrop.

Well, that and Minami's ability to blow things up.

When we got to the edge of the mountains we set up our groups and we started. There would be much activity late at night, but if we were seen the alarm would go up quickly. The two groups were set and we headed out. I went with Minami, Benjiro and Gonmaru while Mitsuki was look out with Chojuro at the mountain.

Our team of four moved along the wall, stopping at gaps Minami assured us the guards couldn't see us in. We slipped into the wall at a gate by waiting for a guard to request it open. We ambushed him and those opening it by throwing the smoke grenades in there with them. We used the air bubble jutsu to keep the grenades from putting us to sleep and split into two groups to distribute them among the wall. Daikon was tracking Ume, though it was taking him time to get a read on her. That wasn't good.

From what I understood, the rabbits were natural sensors, they could find someone through their chakra or really the imprint their chakra made on the environment. The more active a person was, the more chakra they used and the more recent it was used made tracking easier. The fact that he was having trouble finding her meant she hadn't moved around the city much, she wasn't able to use chakra or that she couldn't produce chakra at all because she was dead.

All three were in fact entirely possible if she was being held somewhere.

He led us into the city but towards our apartments, no, it wouldn't do. That meant we needed to head towards more obvious targets. Where they would hold shinobi who were captured, interrogation.

It wasn't until we got to the building that we met real resistance.

Minami and Benjiro rejoined me and Gonmaru before we got there, Danny guiding her instead of the rabbit. Danny actually attacked Daikon and desummoned him, but I couldn't be mad. If Danny could find Ume somehow he'd be more use than Daikon, who wasn't sure. Minami had been trying to cover the city in the smoke, which she got a fair bit done especially with Mitsuki helping her using her arrows. The mist mixed with the smoke grenades, spreading it into the evening. As we approached we saw the small band of shinobi standing, faces masked and on alert. We approached quietly under the mist and I looked at Minami, signalling her to set the attack.

I moved to the side and she threw a small bomb at my feet. It made a quick bang and flash, nothing big, but all shinobi immediately turned towards me as I stepped out of the mist.

I had the seals done before I did it, locking eyes with them.

"Yin Release: Frozen Prison"

I had to keep my breathing steady, I usually didn't do so many people at once, but I got all their eyes with mine. I could feel the connection, feel the halt to their minds as I forced them to stop everything. They were like a picture, the lot of them frozen in mid step or mid draw of a weapon. I felt myself shake as I kept the connection until it was suddenly severed.

The wire slung out from the mist wrapping them all together and breaking eye contact. A moment later it blew up and we ran. There was no point in subtlety at this point.

The corridors were three people wide, I took the lead keeping jutsu at the ready. As soon as someone was in view I froze them then either Gonmaru would slam their head into the wall or Minami would blow them up. Benjiro was rear guard while we followed Danny, who just sprinted ahead, not even slowing until we were down to a door. It was like all the other doors in the corridor, dark and ominous, well, not just that, the smell. I knew the smell, how couldn't I working in the hospital as much as I had? Blood, fecal matter and death, the hallways smelled like death. So much so I hesitated to open the door.

I needn't worry about it, Minami yanked it open.

"Yep that's her, get her down, we need to go."

I didn't hesitate then, even as I ran in, even as I took it, her, in.

She looked so small, given she had always been small, but she was thinner. Naked from the top up she was laid out on a board. I could see her ribs and her thin arms. She'd lost muscle, maybe from not eating enough. She had a fast metabolism and they couldn't have been feeding her enough here. Her hair was a mess around her face, which was starker and more drawn than ever. Her normally thin face looked hallowed, hair stuck to it from what was probably dried sweat. In the dark she looked more dead than alive, but as I approached I saw Danny jump on the table and place a furry paw on her face. Not clawing, but mewing.

Her eyes fluttered open and she exhaled a breath.

"Danny."

I ran to her side a moment later. Her eyes were foggy, her form weakened, she was in pain, from what I could take from the diagnostic she was low on blood, malnourished, burned and beaten.

But she was alive, she was still here, I could fix it if I worked, if we got out of here. I could keep her safe, I could make things better.

We just needed to survive.

* * *

 **Just as a note, Fujiko isn't a bad person, she's just lashing out because she's scared. She doesn't have the same sort of trust the others have in any of this and she has no reason to trust Shiroe, Kotori or Suigetsu. We trust them because we know they aren't bad people either, but again most shinobi don't see them and see people, they see members of the seven families who are universally feared or hated.**


	10. Hiroshi 2

**This takes place immediately after chapter 160.**

* * *

My shirt was damp and dusty when I left the cave. She hadn't bothered to clean herself after the fight during the duel. Instead she'd gone straight to the Sumire, than after that to here. It was strange to see her like that. She spent a lot of effort trying to make herself look clean and put together. I suppose it was just one of the ways she tried to make it seem like she was always okay. An illusion of wellness by maintaining a tidy appearance.

Was it a wonder the illusion was shattered as she lay against the wall? Tear stained face and wild hair with dirty ruffled clothes. The exhaustion had finally caught up with her and she was sleeping on the cave floor, her cat curled around her like some sort of mini guardian against any who might try to harm her.

Not that the animal could do much against the troubles she so justifiably worried about.

Suigetsu and Kiriko were both still outside the cave, though I suspect the others were not terribly far behind. It made more tactical sense that they would be spread out, in case anyone sought to make a move against Ume when she was so distraught.

Six months ago, I would have considered such a notion absurd.

Kiriko looked at me and there was a question in her eyes, if not on her lips. I shook my head, I couldn't really comfort Ume in her state. No one could because there was no telling her that everything was going to be okay. That wasn't a lie she could make herself believe, not after everything that happened.

Still Kiriko rushed into the cave, likely to sit with the sleeping girl until she woke. Even if there was nothing she could do, she'd still try to make things hurt just a bit less for Ume's sake. It was no wonder why she was so loved in the courts, someone willing to be by your side even in the darkness was rare in such circles. Especially since you weren't supposed to acknowledge such things existed in yourself.

No, it was not a wonder, someone like her, especially coming out of a shinobi lifestyle, was a miracle.

Though a miracle Kiriko may be, it wouldn't be enough to fix this.

"Sounded pretty bad from out here. Kind of wish the compound hadn't gotten wrecked in the war. The cooks could have whipped up something to ease things along." Suigetsu said with a huff.

"You think this can be fixed with food?"

"Be surprised how less the world hurts on a full stomach." He leaned back a little as he put two arms around his head.

"At least, it seemed to help last time."

"Last time?" I looked to him.

"The wall. You didn't think she was all straight backed and stone faced the whole time, did you? Nah, she ran off after the name carving ceremony and I found her trying to break her sword on a post. Then she sort of broke down like, well..." His hand moved from the back of his head to his hairline, pushing it back.

"It was the only thing I could think of, I was surprised it worked, well, kind of. She went from upset to dour and fatalistic, and I guess she's been that way since really, just sort of..." He slid his right hand down his forearm at a downward angle then let out a sigh.

"Man, you'd think they'd cover this more."

"Emotional degeneration isn't generally something they worry about at the academy." I said tersely.

"I mean for our family training. They tell you all about manipulating people, looking for weak spots, pushing buttons to get a reaction and that sort of thing. But what happens when someone does it to themselves? How do you stop it if you actually like that person?"

"She didn't do this to herself." I heard the words and backtracked as I thought about it. "Well, I suppose in some ways she did, but it's only because she's, she's…"

"Delusional?" Suigetsu offered the word and I sent a glower in his direction. He held up his hands. "What? You've seen her go at it. She works so hard, runs so fast, but she neglects to see that most people don't want the same things she does and then trips up when they do something to stop it. We both knew this would happen."

I turned away from him, face burning. He was right of course, I knew there would be resistance. Such things don't happen without resistance. That was the entire point of the rebellion, it was a rebellion because it was pushing against what was considered the order of the land. Still, there was the civilians.

"No, most people do want it." I let out a sigh. "I've seen it in their eyes. The way they follow her, the way they trust her, they see what she's trying to do and they want it."

"Yeah, but they aren't the people that matter."

I blinked and looked at him. "You probably shouldn't say that in front of her. I think she might actually shock you in the crotch again."

"Well, you know what I mean. Most the people that matter, they don't see the world like she does. They've done this whole act for years. Most of the time it's been a giant stalemate between the families, with every family working either to break or maintain the equilibrium. When it broke, they didn't think, oh let's see what we can do to make things better for the people under us. No; they thought, how can I change the balance so that it tilts in my favor?"

He moved his hands back and forth like he was a scale.

"Then Ume comes along, and suddenly she's like." He tilts to the right, his hands mimicking the tipping scale. "And they think, well nope, can't have that. Better take her out before she becomes even more of a threat. They won't stop, Hiroshi. They've killed stronger shinobi for this, they killed my brother because of the possibility he might be a threat." He let out a breath. "It was always coming. You know Ume, she never leaves well enough alone. I think the families knew this, especially the Sumire, but they underestimated how much she'd do."

"Everyone did." I glanced back at the cave.

She always claimed that what was happening wasn't just her, that the rebellion would have succeeded with time. But really, it didn't feel like that. She had been at the forefront of the fall of Yagura, and that was just the beginning. She convinced an entire family of foreign shinobi to relocate to Kirigakure and help replenish the lost forces from the war, found the last Hozuki, then shortly after managed to contract and start major construction on the village to house the refugees of war.

None of the seven families, not even the Kishi, had managed to get approval for the reconstruction of their compounds. Though that last part was because Hiroshi hadn't particularly prioritized it personally. The main compound might have been in shambles, but they were hardly homeless. The Kishi had several offices scattered throughout the Land of Water, plenty enough to house what remained of the main family and their staff.

Maybe the rebellion would have happened one way or another, but in a very short amount of time she accomplished what would have taken others years, some of it just in the committee. The pull she had because of this was astounding, and yet she still wanted to do more, to change more. She still wanted things to go forward, no matter the risk.

Or she did.

"Nothing's going to stop this, is it?" I looked at him and he shook his head.

"Nothing short of another shinobi war. The other family heads are so damn sleazy, it's the only thing that'd get them to work together. Plus, the Aozora are probably still pissed off after Kiriko shined a light on their deathgrip on the Daimyo's court."

I shook my head. That was true was well. They'd never recover from this. Even if they tried to make everyone forget, such a scandal was no so easily quelled. Still, what did that mean? What was to be done?

The truth was, I already knew the answer, but it wasn't something I wanted to consider until this point. I didn't want to admit the obvious, that it was always going to end like this, one way or another. I knew it the moment Ume told me the truth about the past wars.

All I had to do to line up the facts was look at the numbers. Funds, transactions, goods, people, entire villages disappearing from history with no explanation. The history had always contradicted the numbers. It looked neat and orderly, blaming everything on exturgents or the bloodlines. No, it was obvious because despite what I knew, what they tell me, the fact was the Kishi hands weren't any more clean then the other families.

There had never been real peace in the Land of Water, only calm between wars. Wars caused by the seven families, ever since the founding, the wars never truly stopped. It was just a remission, the calm, the restocking preparing for another storm.

And now that storm was coming for Ume.

"This is going to end." I turned towards the cave. "Will you help me with this?"

He actually looked like he was considering it.

"Maybe, depends on what it is. Bit sick of doing blood sport for some dangling carrot. Even if this does helps out Ume, I want something out of it."

He was talking about his apprenticeship. It was common practice to push swordsman hopefuls on grueling missions to test their metal. Still, only the Mizukage could give someone the position as a seven swordsman, it was entirely possible Yagura never intended for Suigetsu to get it but still liked using him for the missions. With him gone it would be hard to confirm, but it wouldn't

be the first time it had happened that someone who had done the missions would have been passed over for the position.

"Well, I suppose that's fair, this involves a lot of work." I held a hand to my chin like I was thinking about my answer. Not that it was hard to divine something he might want. "So, here's my bargain. How would you like to never have to attend a family head meeting again?"

I kept my head down for a second before glancing out of the corner of my eye to gauge his reaction. I shouldn't have worried, the grin on Hozuki's face already told me the answer.

* * *

"You said I wouldn't have to do this shit." Suigetsu glared at me as we headed into the meeting place.

"Certain things will have to happen first." I replied as we entered the larger tent, which was notable since we usually took residence in one of the remaining buildings.

We were the last ones there, and everyone was already sat at the table. They all sat in their chairs, the table round as to have no head to signify any position. Mizushima Gina on the left, Aozora Hatsu in the middle, and Sumire Kigiku on the right, serving tea. Teacups were set in front of everyone, as was tradition, but it was just for show. No one ever actually drank the tea, it was common sense to never eat or drink anything a Sumire put in front of you.

"I see we have a full meeting this time. It has been quite a while, Aozora-sama."

I did a slight bow to Hatsu before sitting down. He returned the gesture with a slight incline of the head. A subtle but not unnoticed sign he didn't completely relay the same amount of respect. Not unusual, considering I was junior to him, but given my affiliation I didn't doubt he probably wouldn't have responded at all if he thought he could get away with it here.

Suigetsu didn't even give him that much.

"Yeah, must be busy in Funsui with everything that's happened. Bet it'll be a good long while before you can head back there."

Hatsu's face didn't change, nor did his tenor change from it's normal formal almost lyrical tone the Aozora liked to take.

"We all know the conclusive results." There was no clip in his tone, his eyes didn't narrow, he looked perfectly calm.

Which meant he was probably still fuming.

"Interesting results, that. What with there being a simultaneous kidnapping of a Sumire brat while there were several hidden excursions aimed at several key figures. All stopped by the security. Awful lot of hubbub, don't you think?" Suigetsu said as he leaned back in his chair, his pointy teeth in a grin.

"Are you implying something?" It was Gina who spoke.

"Nah, that implies a level of subtlety I'm told I don't possess." He kept his toothy grin as the other three looked at him. Only Gina was frowning, but it was a small one.

"Now we have more important matters to discuss than mere speculation." It was Kigiku who said it this time. "Like for example, the construction of family holdings. There was a lot of damages, so it may benefit us to discuss some allocations for current held lands."

Suigetsu switched to a scowl at the not so subtle subject change. I didn't say anything as we went through the motions of the meeting. They were, once again, trying to get Suigetsu to give up his family estates under the notion that since it was just him, he didn't need it. The difference was of course, this time they had Hatsu there trying to push the argument.

The way they talked about it and around every other issue just confirmed more of what I already knew. They didn't seem to much care about anything that had happened, why should they? This was business as usual. The meeting ended without engaging a vote, but this was probably just a warning.

They were planning on pushing Suigetsu with majority now that it was here. Which was honestly fine, since there was no point in it.

As we left the tent I glanced at him, but he didn't do much but puff out his chest and walk away. This had been a test, a jab to gauge their reaction, and it was a lure.

Whether they took the hook was up to them.

* * *

The remains of the Kishi compound that had been still functional were less than a fifth of its previous spacing. It had stood only slightly better than other compounds from the fires that were set during the invasion by the Hamasaki because it was more concrete than the other families, who had wood as a sign of status.

Still, no one occupied it because it was more or less uncomfortable to live in, being surrounded by rubble as well as the running water and electricity not working. Which made it perfect as a meeting place.

The girls met me there as I sat at the clerk desk of the still standing room. It was a tidy space all things considered, though I was sitting mostly in darkness as I leaned against the desk.

Minami made her presence known immediately by kicking in the door, shaking dust off the frame and kicking rocks from the outside in her wake. Mitsuki immediately gave her a smack on the back of the head.

"This is a structurally unsound building."

The girl in the brown sweater and goggles stuck out her tongue even as she rubbed her head. "Worth it."

Kiriko stepped in behind them, glancing around the room, her eyes doing a scan before lingering on me. She took a step to the side of the other two and walked towards the desk. Her back was straighter than it used to be, was it a side effect of her time of the court, or had I just not noticed in all that had happened after the war? In truth I'd barely seen her in a casual setting since, it'd been all work and chaos.

"Hiroshi."

Her voice was soft, it just reverberated in the silence, her eyes looking at me. I paused for only a second. She really was growing into a beauty, the frown on her soft face could cause fights to break out against the offender.

"Do a summons, and a scan. I understand Ao-san wasn't available, I need to be sure."

She didn't hesitate, biting her thumb as a rabbit appeared from the smoke on the table. I hadn't seen this one before, it was cream colored with brown and white spots, and larger than most the other ones Kiriko favored. Though not so much that it was bigger than a normal rabbit. It looked around before glancing at me. It spoke, a feminine voice as its nose twitched.

"You smell like a predator contract."

"Nana, is anyone else in the area?"

Kiriko pulled something out from a pouch, a bit of vegetables which the rabbit took and nibbled on as its ears moved around, twitching.

"No summons, no other people." The rabbit said between nibbles.

I looked at the rabbit, then Kiriko. "You're certain you weren't followed, yes?"

"Nana's the oldest of the sensors, she'd know best." Kiriko said.

"Not like anyone's much interested in us." Minami said, walking forward. "Think I spotted a couple buzzing around Ume, but the Fuma are watching the building, and Chojuro is on guard."

"They're just watchers, they won't move so soon after the concert, it'll look too convenient. Usually lack of evidence is enough to quell that, but if something happens to her so soon afterwards it'll incite riots." I said it letting out a breath.

"That strong of a reaction is probable. The civilians are still confused as to what had happened. Most of them assumed we would win, and reaction aside lots of fingers are being pointed to try and figure out who didn't support our side." Mitsuki said. "The rumors are already circulating about it, though physical attacks have been kept quiet they don't believe in the fairness of the contest."

"Fat lot of good that does." Minami said. "There's always talk about foul play. They always think the families are up to something for the sake of making their lives harder. Sometimes they're right, but a lot of it is just shit happening."

"Regardless, the other families will likely be mindful of that, for now. Too many things happening in a certain amount of time is enough for probable investigation. They are right on the edge and so soon after a war they can't simply disappear whoever shows discontent."

I knew at least that much to be true because of the full census report. It was a good thing Ume suggested we do a proper count because until now no one knew exactly how much of our population had been lost since the closing of the borders and the start of the bloodline genocides.

The population was a fourth of what it was at the end of the last shinobi war. The bloodlines weren't even the most of it. Entire villages had disappeared for one reason or another. Some simply abandoned, others found at sites of natural disaster. That was the civilians, the shinobi population had halved because of the civil war. While some of the martial families could pretend that the civilians didn't matter, the other heads understood we could not afford to wantonly kill more civilians. They, while not our only source, were the primary source for resupplying our shinobi population.

No, they would be careful not to incite something to cause more damage so soon.

Though that didn't mean they wouldn't be planning more precise attacks in the future.

"Because of that, we have a grace period. A short one, they may very well still be a bit unbalanced, but it won't take long for them to recover. They didn't survive this long without being able to adapt quickly."

"You haven't even told us what we're doing, Hiroshi."

Kiriko said. "All I got from you was a cryptic word dropped by one of your owls."

"I need you to head to Funsui, with an escort. I need you to talk to whomever you can, do whatever you can, to have some sort of big public event soon. Something everyone will be at." I pointed at Mitsuki and Minami. "And I need you two to come with me. We're going to need to sort through some information for a few days. I also need you to pass on this to Gonmaru," I pulled a scroll out of my sleeve and handed it to Minami. I pulled another one to Kiriko. "And that to Ao. Hopefully they can meet to put that out."

"Again, you haven't told me what you're doing." Kiriko said.

I looked at her and let out a breath. "I can't tell you, not while you're going to the capital. It'll give me away."

"I wouldn't give you away." She said.

"Not intentionally, no, but the Aozora are experts in reading body language. If they catch something is off this might not work. Ao should be experienced enough to go off on his own without much note."

Kiriko looked at the scroll. "Is anybody going to know what's going on?"

I pointed two fingers at Minami and Mitsuki. "You two will, Gonmaru will know part of it. Suigetsu already has something of an inkling, he'll have to."

"Us two are right here. Why are we going file diving?" Minami piped in.

"Because I cannot do it alone soon enough and I can't ask for a proper clerk to help." I turned to them. "Look, I can't explain it fully until we get there. But I need to keep this scattered and small. One or two of us disappearing for a few hours isn't enough to draw suspicion. I also had Suigetsu set some disparaging remarks to draw their eye while he moves around the village as a false flag. He'll be talking around, maybe stir up some trouble, make it look like he's the one instigating things, maybe even get help from Benjiro or Gonbee to pull it off."

"Very clandestine, I'm not certain we should agree to this so readily." Mitsuki said this time. "You must give us something more."

"I'm, look, I'm doing something I'm not supposed to do. I can do it, but it's not something I can discuss at all. If anyone gets wind of this, it's gonna come to a screeching halt."

Minami and Mitsuki looked at each other, then at Kiriko. Minami answered first.

"Well, why didn't you say you were breaking the rules? I'm all for that."

"I'll pass judgement after I get details." Mitsuki said. "But I need a detailed explanation."

That may be a problem, since I can't actually say some of the reasons I'm not supposed to do this. But I could try.

"I'll do my best." I turned to Kiriko. "I know this is a lot, but can you trust me on this?"

She took a deep breath.

"I do trust you, you're the only reason Ume didn't die in that cell with us none the wiser." She put a hand on my shoulder. "But, don't do anything too dangerous. We've already lost you once."

"I promise, it's nothing dangerous." I said with a nod. I really hope Kiriko didn't pick up the body language as well as the Aozora so she wouldn't catch now or later how much of a lie that was.

* * *

"How the hell did you keep this place secret!" Minami's voice echoed through the underground chamber as we moved through the rows and rows of bookshelves.

"It's not a secret, all the families are well aware it exists, just not where." I replied as I held aloft one of many reference catalogues. Mitsuki had one as well, as did Minami as we all moved through the darkened chamber. The Kishi Archives were one of the least kept secrets of the Kishi. It was at least several kilometers in length, though exactly how big was hard to say. May have it measured.

"She means the fact that this is located so close." Mitsuki said as she read her own catalogue and we moved down the row. The rows were all single file, with occasional gaps in a grid. It was efficient so all someone would have to do was go in a straight line as to not get lost, but it was still quite dizzying.

"Only high tier Kishi family members are even allowed in here. I wasn't allowed in here until I was made a full heir." I went down the row with the catalogue to get the books.

Each shelf had books that were numbered one to one thousand, each shelf had a different number but otherwise they were not named. It was a safety measure. No one could find information without the proper catalogue, which were kept in a separate location.

"The chamber's reinforced with seals that won't let anyone enter or even find this place again without a full heir or high member."

"Do the families know that?" Minami said.

"No, they don't, or I imagine the Hamasaki would have tried to kidnap a Kishi and force them to do it. Though once they got in, it might be difficult for them to access it." I said.

"Because they don't have the catalogue key." Mitsuki said.

"Yes."  
The last security of the catalogues was that they were encrypted and couldn't be read without a key a Kishi had to memorize. I told them the keys and they got it rather quickly.

"So can I look at the seals? That's super neat. I have an obscurement seal, but a general one. I bet it's harder to tie it to a bloodline." Minami said as she moved along the shelves. She was actually running up the shelve sides, sticking to them. The sides were actually thick enough and sturdy enough that you could do so without so much as budging them, since it was assumed only shinobi would be trying to access it.

"I don't know where they are. Even if I did, I doubt you could make heads or tails of it. The original sealsmith who did this place was legendary apparently. His work was closely guarded and not written down."

"I thought the reason we were here was because the Kishi wrote EVERYTHING down." Minami said again.

"Well, this was a bit before that was our policy." I said as I moved my finger down a row. "There, fifth from the top, get the first five books in that row."

Minami ran along the row and pulled out the first one.

"Wow, this is thick."

"As you said, we wrote everything down. Part of what we're looking for should be in that section though." I ran through the numbers. "Though we'll need to go back and forth to make sure we have enough consistent data throughout to make our case. Which will take a while."

"Augh, that sounds so boring. How do we even know what we're looking for?"

"I'll give you a broad list of things to look for. Some of the writings are first hand accounts, some of them are war logs, some of them are financial transactions, regardless we'll need all of it. It has to be as thorough and damning as possible." I said as I started down the list.

"Are you certain this will work?" Mitsuki spoke this time. "Even if we bring this forward, it may be disregarded because of the instability of the country."

"Entirely possible, but the instability of this country was caused directly by the people we're trying to bury."

Them and almost every previous generation of the seven families. I only found some of this stuff on my own before. It didn't take long to find once I knew what to look for. I just had to cross reference certain dates and years of noted conflicts. Unlike the history books, the information here hadn't been altered. It was all there and no one would come out of this clean.

"I would say this is a bit extreme, but we've see the lengths they are willing to go." Mitsuki said again.

"Plus, they're after our little sister." Minami said as she opened a page. "Blah, kanji."

"I know you can read it." I said. "Just because you prefer Hiragana doesn't mean you should turn your nose up at Kanji."

"Hiragana makes sense, why do you need more than a thousand letters for something you could do with forty eight?" Minami said as she started to pull out a seal to hold the books. She held the seal to it to try and store it and…. "What the hell?"

"The covers are sealed so they can't be put into storage seals." I said absently. "They don't want someone just coming in here, taking a storage seal and stealing all the books."

"They had storage seals back then?" Minami looked down at me, confused.

I actually had to think about it for a moment.

"I'm not sure actually." Looking away from it. "All accounts suggest storage seals are a relatively recent type of seal. It may simply be the books are sealed to prevent any other type of seal from hurting it. Sealing techniques used to be more prominent among non shinobi as a way to support the shinobi class."

"They were? How did they manage that?" Mitsuki said this time.

"Well, seal work is mostly working in theory. Someone incapable of doing actual jutsu could design a seal if they understood how and why a certain jutsu worked and were able to put in the work to design their own seals. Seal smithing was a highly sought out and refined art decades ago."

"Why did they stop?" Minami asked.

"They didn't, not by choice. They were wiped out during one of the shinobi wars. While I say someone incapable of doing jutsu could do the work, it was hard to protect them during the wars because they weren't shinobi, all it took was a concentrated effort by our enemies to kill them. It's why we keep the identity of our seal makers secret now." I paused.

"Unless of course, that's something we said to cover it up, and one of the seven families actually killed all the seal smiths out of jealousy for whatever family had a claim on them. Actually…" I started flipping through the catalogue. "The last recorded known sealsmith was around, I think, this time period." I pointed a finger there. "If we can find evidence of foul play by one of the other families, it'll be another strike against them."

"Cool, le… wait, why are they called sealsmiths and not seal masters?" Minami said as she finished grabbing the books in a large stack off the wall and walked down.

"Because seal working and metalworking were heavily linked back then. How do you think the seven swords of Kirigakure were made? They were forged by skilled seal smiths. It's said that each sword was a gift to each family who sent a representative to wield them."

"You know, I question why we do not discuss our shared history if you are so knowledgeable about the country's lore." Mitsuki said as we started down the columns.

I shrugged my shoulder. "It never really came up before. I should point out, everything I just told you is actually all secret. No one else is supposed to know that much about our country's past."

"But that's really nifty, I didn't know sealwork was used to make weapons like that. Though I guess when I think about it, it's super obvious. Ume already uses seals as weapons." Minami said, her eyes looking up as she followed behind with her stack of books. "Oh, oh, I bet I could…."

"You may need to shelve your inspiration for now Minami, I understand you'll want to experiment later and I am all for it." I replied. "It really is amazing the work you've done on your own. It usually takes years to get to the level of thought and creativity you put in your seals. Once we actually have time, I'll see what can be done to get you a proper workspace as well as smiths who could help you make iron seals."

There was a slamming sound that made me turn back to look only to be bowled over by the green eyed girl who had covered the distance and grabbed me by the midsection. I almost moved to push, but she lifted me off my feet and started jumping in a circle as she squeezed me tight.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I knew, I knew Ume always said you were nice! But I never thought, none of the adults ever help me with my seals. They just shoved me and Ume in a closet to shut us up, but they never cared!"

I stared at her, feeling uncomfortable both at the sudden contact and the constricting grip of her arms. She was stronger than I expected, certainly stronger than I was, or maybe it was just the excitement. I didn't want to try and force a break in what was clearly to me an embrace of gratitude, but at the same time my breath was getting short and...

"Minami, he has to breathe." Mitsuki said.

I was released a moment later, but contact was still made as the girl put a hand on my shoulder.

"Do you, do you really mean it?" She looked at me in the eyes, and there was something pleading in there, as well as excited.

Minami was not an exceptional ninja by any means, in fact by what her academy statistics said she was sub par. But that was because the academy didn't value the things she did have skill in, and it seemed like outside of her family she hadn't gotten support for her other endeavors. Maybe it was strange to her that I would help her on this, but then maybe it wasn't. I wasn't as a part of that circle as I would have liked.

"Yes, why would I say so otherwise?" I straightened up. "Look, we need to move forward. That's part of what we're trying to do here, we're trying to remove the obstacles of our country being able to move forward. But we cannot destroy without being prepared to create. Honestly, it's rather strange that there hasn't been a more concentrated effort to try and support seal makers in our country. It was once one of our strengths. But now it's stagnated, and it's probably the seven families fault. Your sealmaking, your method, your style, is wholly organic and it's new. We need more people like you, people to do the old things in new ways."  
I looked at her and took her hand off my shoulder. While I appreciated the enthusiasm, I didn't really appreciate the random physical contact.

"But again, for the moment we have to shelve that. This takes precedence."

I looked at Minami, who nodded while she beamed at me. Looking past her, Mitsuki was also nodding, while wearing a small rare smile on her normally blank, stoic face. Though that didn't linger as my eyes fell behind them both to the floor.

"Did you just drop some of the record logs of the Kishi Archive?!"

* * *

As expected, it took days to compile the information properly, even with help. Thankfully, Mitsuki was as concise as any clerk in sorting and filing away information. Her handwriting was neat and after I showed her the system she referenced everything perfectly.

Minami was less helpful in that regard, but at the same time she questioned everything about what we were doing. Sometimes she'd ask about certain dates and why they were bad, normally that wouldn't be useful, but it actually made me pause and look up different facets of information I couldn't immediately answer. While sometimes it led to nothing, several times it led to me finding more supporting evidence as well as other cases I hadn't thought to investigate or was unaware of.

As disorganized and messy as her notes and methods were, or maybe because of it, she indirectly helped me make leaps and fill in gaps I would have never done on my own. At least not in that amount of time. I don't know if it was luck, or intuition, maybe both. Either way, I felt a little more confident about what I had when I went to Funsui with it.

Which still left my heart beating out of my chest as I called the meeting.

The halls of Funsui were all familiar, it was by design. If anybody who wasn't supposed to be here got in they'd get hopelessly lost. In the smooth walled hallways with the slit windows I considered turning back, it would be easy to claim I turned around. Still I moved forward, eyes darting to the pocket watch with the exact time.

I had arranged this meeting on short notice. As a clan head I had that power, though I could have also done so in the courts. I wasn't banned like the others, I was technically uninvolved in that entire fiasco, but I still needed this to be private.

Discretion was key, even if it meant that this didn't guarantee my safety should they take other sides on the matter.

There was a reason why this wasn't done. The Kishi weren't strong in a martial sense, there were a lot of Kishi, but overall they wouldn't stand up to the wrath of a martial family. Or in this sense, even two or three non martial ones. Observe, record, do not interact, that was the Kishi way. It was why we had the Enmu family with its steam release as guards. It was an army killer technique, one designed to distract and take out large swaths of enemies so we could cover retreats rather than taking on enemies one on one. If this was mishandled, if it was rejected and revealed, I would die before I even knew what happened. Most of my family probably would too, the fact I was attempting this at all meant that it would break the uneasy truce we had and all hell would break loose.

Yet I couldn't back down.

I knocked on the door at precisely five minutes before appointed time and I waited. It was two minutes before a figure answered and the door opened. I had to hold back the choke at the person answering it. Most people didn't recognize the Daimyo guard outside of their battle garb, the man in the plain looking kimono could have been misconstrued as a normal servant.

If it weren't for the mon on his belt threaded in gold.

The room I entered was surrounded on all sides except the one I entered by paper screens. With the screens in place it looked about as big as all the other rooms, but that was likely an illusion of separation. This room was at least three times as big, one reason it was at the end of the hallway. What lay on the other side of the screens I couldn't know, maybe more guards, maybe just living quarters. It didn't matter, I moved to my designated spot at the low table and kneeled on the cushion and waited again.

I kept my eyes down and my breathing even as I concentrated on my breathing. Showing how nervous I was would do nothing to help my case, I needed to be calm and composed if I were to be taken seriously. It was something I'd been drilled in since my youth and something I'd been practicing almost nonstop since becoming the heir apparent and then full head.

No matter what you did, you could not look weak or uncertain otherwise you would be eaten alive.

I heard a door open and as soon as it did I went into a full bow. I was sat just far enough that I wouldn't hit my head on the table when I did so which would have been bad (I'd done so before, exactly once, before my mother berated me into submission). I heard the shuffling as I kept my breathing and my head down. My peripheral vision saw the flashes of fabric as it swept past me and someone made a noise like sitting at the head of the table. When they seemed settled I heard the voice.

"Rise."

I straightened up but kept my eyes down, my line of sight cutting off at his lapel just under the chin. I could see the gold mon, as well as two guards on either side of the room. If I ran, I'd be intercepted.

"Kishi Hiroshi, head of the Kishi family, would you like to elaborate on the reason you have called me here today."

"I have something to present to you as well as several things to discuss, though I would if it does not offend you put up some more security defenses."

"Which defenses are that?"

He sounded curious though not offended. Good.

I very slowly reached down into my pouch. I then reached out to the side and set it on the ground. Risking putting anything, even a piece of paper directly in front of an imperial heir was a good way to get stabbed.

As soon as the paper left my hand someone snatched it up, though I kept my head forward.

There was movement and shuffling as I suppose they were directly behind me inspecting it and sending a message to Mizuno Kazuki.

"Are those seals? I have not seen one in that style, where did you acquire it?"

"Custom made privacy and silence seals, created by a friend. I was informed it works best if you unroll it and have it touch the ceiling wall and floor."

Minami's seals were much longer than the standard rectangle design. That seal, what she called her super privacy outside distortion seal, was in fact long enough to hang from the top and bottom of the room. Every centimeter of the seal was covered in markings.

Kazuki head seemed to swivel.

"We shall see if that is true."

I heard the shuffling as someone left the room and we sat in silence for a good ten minutes before they returned. I kept my head down and my place seated as that happened. They were likely testing in a safer place away from the heir to make sure it was safe. I didn't blame them, faulty seals tended to explode. Though Minami seemed certain this would work just fine, I didn't see her test it so I wasn't personally offended.

Not that I'd tell her they didn't believe it would work.

They returned and put up the seal, apparently satisfied with what it did, or maybe they were just humoring me when it didn't blow up. Regardless Kazuki spoke.

"Now you said you had something to present to me."

I nodded and did the same thing I set another seal out and one of the guards confirmed it was a storage seal, opened it in the other room and returned with the thick tome before setting it before him. There was silence as he thumbed through the the book and I counted quietly to myself. I couldn't let my mind wander too much, but I just needed to wait until he finished.

It was about twelve minutes until he spoke again.

"This is quite a book you are presenting to me. Is all of this true?"

He said it in the same tone, I didn't know if he was surprised cause I couldn't read his expression.

"To the best of my knowledge. I have several more books if you want to cross reference particular articles. That is simply the most important."

I said.

"This is very damning, even for the Kishi. So tell me, why have you brought this forward. What do you expect to gain?"

I saw him move his hands together fingers intertwining. He was sizing me up, trying to figure out my motives for this. That was fine, he hadn't had me killed yet so it meant he might want to listen.

"Personally, I expect I'll lose just about everything I've ever worked for. My position, the respect of my family, entirely possible my life as well. From a pragmatic point of view, I don't gain anything."  
One of the reasons why no one had ever done this in my family was because the threat of its existence was enough. Blackmail was only as good as long as it was hidden. Following through, actually ruining someone was useless for bargaining with them unless it ended in their death. It was this singular point that kept the Kishi family where they were. We gathered all the information all the secrets and if you were smart you didn't think about moving against us for the threat about what a certain secret about you could do. Which was why things had stayed the way it had for so long, because if no one knew truly had bad everything was that had been hidden and squirreled away the seven families wouldn't have made it past the first shinobi war.

"But our country, what do we have to gain, well a fresh start, a real one. The tree is rotten because the roots are rotten. We're trying to regrow the tree, but the infection is still there. We won't be able to truly grow past this until we pull them out and put down new seeds."

"Are you truly willing to die to give this country a fresh start?"  
Kazuki said his voice hinting some more intrigue in the conversation.

"Before I was a full heir, before I was a the head of the Kishi, I was, am still, a shinobi. For the last year however I have been spared all risk because of my position, but that hasn't changed who I am, who I should be. I said an oath to protect this country from its enemies, all its enemies. It doesn't matter who they are, if they are bad for the wellbeing of the country I cannot turn away. Putting my life on the line for the people, our people, is just common sense."

"Even if it means the death of your family?"

"If the Kishi must end for us to be reborn, then so be it."  
I let out a breath as I closed my eyes. My family he called it, were they really. What sort of family was that? The ones who sent my class to the wall to die to kill me. There was no record of who was responsible for that, we searched but couldn't find it. Which meant it had to have been done by the Kishi. The family who approved the blocking notice to prevent a search for Kansen's body or maybe the family who didn't notice I was being enthralled for six months while keeping me away from my team.

I had no frame of reference about how abnormal they were, how abnormal it was, had no clue really until my father died. He was the family head before me, and yet when he died they pushed me through the ceremony and just kept running like nothing had happened. He had been a great man, a great head, but once he was dead he was of no use to them so they moved on.

Once I was out of the Land of Water, even for as it was I saw first hand what a family should have been. I saw it in the way Ume cried when she saw me again, apologizing profusely for her failure to take me with her when she fled the Land of Water. Not the fact that she had been captured, beaten and interrogated because of the attempt. Not even that there was no possible way she could have safely taken me out of the country or that she returned and ended the war in a single battle when she could have, should have really just left and never come back living peacefully on the mainland.

I saw how a family was supposed to be when Ume declared her intent to rescue Suigetsu from one of the most powerful shinobi who have ever existed and how not a single one of her group even blinked or blanched at the idea. How they supported her even if it meant they would get killed, not out of obligation but out of the love they had for her. I even saw it in the Fuma when we pulled them from the Land of Sound how they set about to gather every one of their people to escape the sanin's grasp.

I didn't doubt any such attempts would have been disregarded as foolish and a waste of resources from my family. No one person was important enough to them to go to such lengths. Not my father, certainly not me, if I died they'd have a replacement before the day was out.

"This will need to be under some review."  
Kazuki's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"And there will be some heavy planning involved though, if this comes to pass there will be difficulty in terms of execution and planning. Especially if they suspect anything is amiss."

"Permission to speak."  
I said.

"Granted, do you have a thought on this?"  
He said.

"I do, I believe we have some untapped resources that can be exploited for just this task."

"And which resources are those?"  
He seemed curious.

"If Mizuno-sama and the imperial Daimyo would indulge me, we proper set up we can properly contain and capture the main factions in this with little trouble."  
I had a light smile on my face as I let my eyes wander up.

"Are you speaking of the anbu Kishi-san? I do not believe they would comply."

I shook my head.

"No Mizuno-sama, my actual answer lies with our newest editions to the shinobi force of the Land of Water."  
I smiled lightly.

"It has come to my attention recently that they have some very special techniques in containment."


End file.
